Mokona's Magical Dimensional Merry-Go-Round!
by ZareEraz
Summary: Fem!Watanuki/Doumeki. While out on an errand, Yuko, Doumeki, Watanuki and Mokona accidently fall through dimensions and land in some interesting worlds where different types of demons and spirits are causing trouble. While meeting new people and causing trouble of their own, Watanuki and her friends try to travel home...if they can even get back in the first place!
1. Dogs, Demons and Doumekis

A/N: Hey ZareEraz here! This is the request fic from the mini contest I had in Chapter 3 of Addiction. devixen85 requested that I take Yuko, Watanuki, Doumeki and Mokona and basically dump them into different demon/yokai anime series. First up is Inuyasha! (And yes, these are all going to be under the regular xxxHolic fandom because I wanted them all in one document and you can only have two crossover categories, so get over it if it bothers you.)

Also, Ignore the fact that the black Mokona can't dimension travel and let's just have fun!

Chapter One:

Dogs, Demons and Doumekis

"Yuko! Where the hell have you taken us?!" Watanuki screamed as she looked at the disaster around her, throwing the day bag into the air. Doumeki caught it before something could break.

"Not quite sure." The witch hummed, putting her finger to her red lips. She swished around in her green, Chinese –style dress and hummed to herself. "We're going to have to figure that one out later. But while we're here…let's have some fun!~"

Watanuki, Doumeki, Yuko and Mokona had been out on an errand after stopping at the shop for a little bit so Watanuki could make a snack. They were walking along the street looking for a certain shop that had something or other that the teens would need on this particular errand and when Watanuki wasn't looking, Yuko pulled out her magic circle to do something (the damn, woman hardly ever told her anything extraneous). The next thing she knew, Yuko's spell has messed with something in the universe and they fell through a crack in the world-barrier-dimension thing that Yuko mentions every once in a while when Syaoran and Sakura pop up in conversation or if their groups contracts Yuko through the Mokonas (but Watanuki really didn't get it so she didn't pay much attention to Yuko and now she wished she had). And so, down they fell, into a swirling vortex of colors and strange streams of energy until Watanuki blacked out. The next thing the girl knew, she was waking up surrounded by tall grass, staring up at the sky and Doumeki's face (about three inches from hers). She screamed, head butted Doumeki when she sat up unexpectedly and while rubbing her head, she ripped Yuko a new one.

"We're not here to have fun! We were supposed to be doing a job when you messed everything up!" The poor girl screamed, her voice reaching her highest pitched rant to date.

"Watanuki, this is inevitable. We were supposed to come here for whatever reason and now we're going to see it through." Yuko said, her serious voice reigning in the excitable teen just a tiny bit. "But I really wish we would've brought lunch along! I'm hungry!~" Yuko whined, setting Watanuki off again.

"This is not a picnic, Yuko! We're stuck in the middle of nowhere!"

Watanuki was looking around again, panicking at the fact they had fallen through a crack in the universe and had ended up here. Wherever "here" was. Doumeki was also looking around, but he wasn't panicking like the flailing girl was. The four of them were stranded on a grassy hill surrounded by mountains and trees. The boy could see a road just below the hill and a little village down said road in the distance. It looked like one of the rural villages that Japanese painters drew hundreds of years ago, with little wooden huts and makeshift corrals for animals. There weren't any paved roads from what the archer could see and there was hardly anybody anywhere. Doumeki tapped his bow on his shoulder as he observed, glad he restrung it at Yuko's shop and brought it with him because Watanuki was attracting small spirits already.

The archer looked at his girl; realization dawning on him as he noticed (even with Watanuki's wacked out emotions helping his sight) he could see the tiny spirits through his own eye as well as their shared eye. _Well, that's weird,_ he thought, filing that information away until it became relevant. In the meantime, Watanuki was trying to get rid of her little pests.

"Get off ME!" Watanuki yelled, flailing around, waving her arms, trying to get free of the tiny spirits.

"Watanuki, go stand by Doumeki." Yuko sighed, already beginning to dread this adventure if Watanuki wouldn't shut up.

"Yeah! By Doumeki!" Mokona shouted, jumping up and kicking Watanuki in the face, pushing her towards her boyfriend.

"Wha!" Watanuki stumbled and tripped her way back and Doumeki caught her shoulders before she fell and then ended up holding her back as she threatened to turn Mokona into dakdoritang. Which would've been yummy if it weren't made out of Mokona. As she was yelling, Doumeki noticed a strange group of people walking up the road.

"Who's that?" He asked, drawing everyone's attention to the group.

"They are so weird." Watanuki said, fixing her glasses as they all stared, Doumeki's hold on her dropping.

"You're one to talk!~" Yuko teased.

"Shut up!"

As they moved closer, Doumeki could start picking out who went with what in the group. There was a woman in a pink and green kimono with a cat one shoulder and a huge boomerang slung over the other and a man in purple and black monk's clothes with a staff that clanked on every step as he walked. There was also a man in a red kimono and hakama with long silver hair and…dog ears? Okay, not the weirdest thing Doumeki had seen, the little fox creature on his head was weirder than he was. The only normal person in the group was the black haired girl on the bike in the sailor school uniform and even she looked a little funny with her huge yellow backpack slung over her shoulders.

"Hey!" Yuko said as she leaned over dramatically, one hand shading her eyes as she squinted at the group walking along the road. "Maybe we can ask them for help! Hello!" The witch shouted and waved over to the group.

"Yuko! Don't randomly start talking to strangers! What if they're dangerous?!" Watanuki panicked, only slightly rational in her argument.

"Oh come on, Watanuki! It'll be fine!" Yuko brushed off her employee and continued drawing attention to herself. "Hey! Yoohoo! Over here!"

"Yuko!" Watanuki dashed in front of the woman and tried to grab and pin her waving arms down. The see could hear the group talking now, drawing closer to her own companions.

"Oh, shove off Watanuki!" Mokona jumped up and pushed the raven out of the way with its surprisingly strong feet as it spoke. Watanuki stumbled backwards and got ready to fry the rabbit-thing when her clumsiness kicked in and her ankle buckled on the uneven ground.

The girl tipped back, falling down the hill and discovering that it was actually a small cliff. The rocks on the side had collapsed at some point, making the hill and overlook and now waited below the seer to break her neck and crack her skull. Watanuki screamed as she fell, her heart spasming as she relived her terrifying accident with the window at school for the last seconds of her life. She waited for the crash, the shattering of bone and blinding pain before everything went black just like last time. If she was lucky, she'd be crippled for life. And if not, she'd really be dead this time. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the impact. She vowed to haunt Mokona for the rest of its life if she died.

Only, it never came.

Watanuki didn't see the red blur racing towards her or the hands reaching out, she only felt the strong arms under her back and knees and the absence of the rushing wind as she fell. But she kept her eyes shut, just in case everything was a lie and she was really hallucinating as she died.

"Oi." A gruff voice barked at her. A cross vein popped out on Watanuki's forehead in reaction to her least favorite word to come out of Doumeki's mouth. only it wasn't Doumeki who'd said it. Whoever it was sounded stupider.

"How many times have I told you not to 'oi' me?!" The girl snapped reflexively. Her mismatched eyes shot open in a hot glare, her teeth bared in a hiss.

A pair of surprised amber eyes looked down at her.

"Watanuki, I'm up here." Doumeki called down, leaning over the edge of the hill. He'd nearly had a heart attack when the seer tipped over the mini-cliff and he had been just as helpless this time as the last time she'd fallen. But thankfully the guy with the dog ears had caught her. And then Watanuki did something out of character:

She grabbed the guy's dog ears (one for each hand) and started stroking them between her thumbs and fingers.

"What are you doing?!" The dog guy yelped in surprise.

"They're so cute!" Watanuki smiled, stroking the ears until the guy dumped her in the dirt.

"Get off me!" The silver-haired man snapped. He turned his head over his shoulder toward his companions and singled out the girl in the school uniform. "This one's just as crazy as you are, Kagome!"

"Yes," The monk stepped forward and crouched down next to Watanuki (who was rubbing her sore butt and cursing at the dog-man) with his hand on his chin, studying her. "They are dressed strangely like you as well," he said, taking note of Watanuki's short sleeved shirt and short gray skirt.

"Well, from my point of view, you're the ones that are dress strangely!" Watanuki snapped as the monk walked around to look at her better. She then had to smack him in the face because of the hand that was groping her butt. "Hands off! I have to deal with him," she pointed to Doumeki who was skidding down the hill to join her, "and I won't take any of that shit from you!"

"I like this girl!" The woman with the boomerang smiled devilishly.

"Watanuki! Are you okay?" Yuko called as she walked down the hill and joined the group, the fur ball on her shoulder.

"Yeah! Not thanks to dinner over there!" Watanuki stood up and brushed off her skirt and then snarled at Mokona.

"Mokona was just trying to get you to shut up!" The fur ball announced.

"I'll shut up when I want to shut up!" Watanuki clenched her fists at the creature and snarled again.

"Is that a demon?" The little fox person asked, leaning forward from his perch on the regular girl's shoulder. He must've jumped on her when the dog-man leapt to save Watanuki.

"It doesn't seem evil in any way." The boomerang woman noted.

"Oh, he's evil alright!" Watanuki hissed, folding her arms with a huff. "But as much as I'd like to roast Mokona, it does come in handy sometimes."

"So that thing's called Mokona? What is it?" The regular girl asked.

"Mokona's a mokona, dumb girl!" Mokona crossed its arm now, peeved that everyone didn't know that it was a mokona.

"I am not dumb!" The girl yelled back.

"Don't take it too seriously. Mokona said the same thing to me when we met." Watanuki explained and then she remembered her manners. "I'm Watanuki by the way. Kimihiro Watanuki." She bowed to the group and then to the dog-man. "Thank you for saving me."

"Che." The dog-man replied, having no manners whatsoever.

"His name is Inuyasha, he's a half demon if you hadn't noticed by his ears." The regular girl informed, getting a disgruntled, "Hey!" from the dog-man. "I'm Kagome. Nice to meet you."

"Don't act like this is all normal!" Inuyasha snarled. "We don't know where these people come from or what their purpose is!"

"Oh, we come from some place very far from here and all we want to do is get back. We have a job to finish. My name is Yuko Ichihara, but it's an alias, of course." Yuko walked up elegantly in her Chinese-style dress and flipped her black hair seductively. The monk's eyes bugged out at her appearance, his hand snaking towards her butt and the boomerang lady conked him on the head with her weapon to stop him.

"Ow!"

"That monk trying to grab your behind is Miroku and I'm Sango. And this little girl is Kirara." The boomerang woman re-shouldered her weapon and petted the little two tail cat on her shoulder. The cat was adorable, with black ears and paws, and huge pink eyes. The cat pounced off her shoulder and trotted over to Watanuki and rubbed against the girl's leg. "It seems she likes you." Sango smiled at the seer.

"Twin tailed cats are said to have strange abilities. Does yours?" Yuko asked pointedly, her cranberry eyes narrowing.

"Ah-well…" Sango began when a ball of flame appeared were the cat had been and Kirara transformed into her big appearance, tackling Watanuki to the ground to nuzzle her face with her huge head.

"Gah! What is with this cat?!" The seer yelped, trying to keep herself from getting nicked by Kirara's huge saber tooth teeth.

"Well, I guess that answers that question." Yuko responded. Then a flash of orange-red and blue hopped over to Watanuki as well and the little fox person was sniffing the seer, sitting right on her chest.

"This one smells like the forest and good things to eat. Kirara thinks she smells like cat treats and lilies. What's with her?" The little person pointed at Watanuki's face and sniffed her some more.

"Watanuki has blood that is attracted to spirits," Yuko started, "That's why we have Doumeki follow her around!~ He's a good little boyfriend, isn't he?~" The witch patted the archer on the back and brought him to the forefront.

"So that's why she smells so nice." Inuyasha said, crouching down to a tackled Watanuki and sniffing her.

"Doumeki, right?" The regularly dressed girl asked, walking up to the man. "I'm Kagome Higarshi. Are you an archer too?"

"Hm." Doumeki answered, nodding his head. "You're one too."

"Yep!"

"He does seem to have a pure aura, just like Kagome does." Miroku said, rubbing his swelling head.

"Ah!" Watanuki said from the ground, the fox person just having stolen her glasses to look in them. "Give those back!"

"Shippo, play nice." Kagome said, playfully but firmly at the same time. The glasses got shoved back onto the girl's nose roughly and Shippo hopped back to Kagome's shoulder. Watanuki shoved Kirara off her body and ran over to hid behind Doumeki, using him as a shield.

"How brave." The archer raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"Shut up!" She growled.

"So, you said you were from some place far away," Kagome started, "Where would that be exactly?"

"Japan." Yuko answered.

"But this is Japan." Kagome replied.

"Well, it might be, but our Japan is a little different." Yuko said. "You're not from here either, are you?"

"No, I'm from five hundred years in the future if you can believe that."

"Oh, I can." Watanuki knew that at this point Yuko was going full witch with her odd explanations about how the world worked. "You see, in my line of work I come in contact with many people from different worlds and timelines. Running into someone from five hundred years in a future Japan in a…what time period is this?" Yuko asked.

"The Warring States Era." Kagome answered.

"At least, that's what she calls it. To me it's normal." Inuyasha huffed.

"So this world has its own Warring States Era? How interesting. Continuing on: I myself and very acquainted with time and dimension travel, but these two are not so much." Yuko jerked a thumb back at Watanuki and Doumeki, the former still hiding and the latter folding his arms calmly. "For some reason, we've fallen out of our own dimension and ended up in yours, and even though I don't know what that reason is, I know our meeting was inevitable." The word "inevitable" was mocked by Watanuki in the same breath.

"So you've time traveled back to this era, Kagome?" Watanuki asked, still behind Doumeki's back.

"Yep, I'm helping my friends look for something that I kinda…uh…broke."

"Damn right you did." Inuyasha huffed, plopping back onto the ground.

"Well, if you've lost something and wish for it back, I can grant your wish." Yuko's shop owner's voice popped on and Watanuki knew where this was going. "But for a suitable price."

"How?" Kagome asked. Yuko just smiled mysteriously. "Well, you see…I shattered a very important jewel with mystical properties and there are many piece of it still scattered across the country." The girl reached into the pocket and pulled out a bottle with several purple shining pieces of the jewel. "An evil demon is trying to collect these pieces as well and we're trying to stop him. Can you really help us get the whole jewel?" Yuko bent down from her considerable height to study the bottle and its contents.

"I could, but you wouldn't be able to pay the price for the whole jewel. The compensation is too great for you and your friends to provide." The witch answered after a moment.

"We can come up with money if you need it."

"I don't need money. What I would have to take for your wish to be granted is…" Yuko's hand came up and touched Kagome's chin, getting almost close enough to kiss the girl. "Your ability to time travel." She pointed to Inuyasha, "That sword you so desperately need," next was Shippo, "Your memories of your father," then Sango, "Your little brother's life," then Miroku, "Your love for all women including sweet Sango," and last, Kirara. "And this little demon would be stuck as a kitten for the rest of her days." Yuko let go of the girl and knelt down to pet the cat. Kirara bristled, but let herself be pet all the same.

"All that, plus the bond you share with each other would cover the cost of returning your jewel whole."

"You can't do that!" Inuyasha sprang to his feet, growing and putting his hand on his sword.

"I said I wasn't, you oaf." Yuko replied, twirling her hand around her hair. "I can, however, grant your wish to see at least some of the jewel pieces restored to you." Yuko smiled brightly. "That will cost you...your companionship and protection until we leave and every ingredient you have on you so that Watanuki can make us a delicious meal!"

"Yuko! Don't drag me into this!" Watanuki wailed.

"Guys, let's talk." Kagome dragged Inuyasha over to the rest of the group and they stuck their heads together.

"Should we take up her offer?" Kagome asked. "It seems reasonable."

"We can get some jewel shards this way." Miroku added.

"But we'll be babysitting complete strangers. I don't want any more trouble then we already have. Che." Inuyasha argued.

"He's got a point and we don't know how long they'll be stranded here."

"But the witch-lady is going to provide us with a delicious meal. Food's always good!" Shippo put in.

"They don't seem like bad people. Even the creepy lady is offering us a deal." Sango agreed. Kirara mewed as well.

"Looks like you're out voted Inuyasha." Kagome turned to the half-demon. He just snorted in displeasure. "Just put up with it for a few days and we'll have some more jewel shards. Plus, I'll get to talk to some people who are sort of from my era. I think." The group took another look at the four travelers standing a bit off. Yuko was watching Watanuki and Mokona fight over something trivial and Doumeki was plugging his ears to drown out some of the racket. The group nodded (minus Inuyasha) and they broke off their huddle to return to the other group.

"We accept your terms, if you fulfill yours." Kagome announced to the witch.

"I always do." Yuko smiled. She clapped her hands together cheerfully. "Now! It's getting late! Let's find a nice camp site in this dump and have some dinner!~"

Yuko dumped the day bag back into Watanuki's arms started walking down the dirt road. The sun had started to set while they'd been talking and both groups walked along the road until they found a reasonable campsite to stop at. It was in a grassy field, with a few sparse trees and a stream nearby. Then the girls split off to go find firewood, leaving Watanuki and Yuko with Miroku and Doumeki as Inuyasha hunted around for some meat. By the time the half demon came back, a nice big fire was built, everyone was back and Watanuki was slaving away over a pot, balanced on a spit and frying vegetables on a grill that Yuko had managed to stuff into the supposed "day bag." Also in the day bag: three sleeping bags, enough food for two days and five bottles of alcohol that somehow managed to fit inside the bag and not seem so heavy at the time that Watanuki was carrying it.

"Yuko!" Watanuki growled from her place at the fire. "This was supposed to be a day bag! Not a camping duffle! It's almost as if you knew we were going someplace for and extended stay!"

"Well, I didn't know. I just thought we'd need to be prepared for everything.~" The woman replied, swinging her bottle of sake back and forth in her hand. She's also somehow managed to sneak her precious pipe into this trip and was puffing it like an old shaman lady.

"And alcohol is always included in 'being prepared for everything?'" The girl asked pointedly.

"Yes!~" Mokona and Yuko cheered, tipping back another drink.

"Gah!" Watanuki gave up and went back to cooking with Kagome's and Sango's help, pitching in help or ingredients when the budding young chef requested them. Soon an array of feudal and modern foods was spread out around the camp fire and everyone thanked everyone else for the meal and dug in.

"Iths oo icy!" Inuyasha complained, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and not touching his food after the first bite.

"It is not! I hardly put any spice on anything!" Watanuki hissed back. "Kagome told me you didn't like spice so I didn't use much!"

"Well, it's horrible!" The half demon grumped. Watanuki whacked him on the head with her clean frying pan. "Ow! You bitch!"

"Shut up, you asshole!" The two got right into each other's face, baring fangs, eyes hot. The rest of the group just laughed at their antics.

"What's so funny?!" They hissed in unison, turning to glare at everyone else.

"You're perfect for each other!" Sango laughed.

"They're almost twins!" Shippo giggled.

"But Inuyasha…" Kagome started, a stern expression on her face. The half demon glared at her. "It is rude to complain about such great food. And she did make it sweet just for you…and I've done the same for you before." Kagome held up an angry fist and the dog-man cowered at what he knew was coming next. "SIT!" The half demon pulled back as much as he could, but his necklace lit up and smacked him into the ground. "Learn some manners!"

"Whoa!" Watanuki looked at the Inuyasha sized crater in the ground in awe. "How did you do that?!"

"Beads of subjugation. When I say 'sit' he's thrown into the ground. It comes in handy sometimes for punishment purposes, but it also saves his butt sometimes." Kagome explained eating some more boar meat.

"Kagommmeee…" The demon whined from the crater, the top of his head appearing with his dog ears and bright, murderous eyes.

"Shut up and eat, Inuyasha." Watanuki was still looking down at the crater when she held up her hand towards the other girl. Kagome high fived her and they both shared an evil smile at Inuyasha's expense.

"And they're too much like each other as well." Miroku said, dishing himself up some rice and meat.

"I'd feel sorry for Inuyasha if Watanuki ever got a hold of those beads," Yuko agree, sipping her sake and lounging on her sleeping bag. "Maybe we can find some for Doumeki…what do you think?"

"Yes!" Watanuki smiled.

"No." Doumeki stated. Yuko laughed and asked her servant for seconds, holding out her bowl. Sango, Shippo, Mokona and Doumeki held out their bowls too and Watanuki moodily served everyone. Doumeki and Yuko held out their bowl for thirds and Watanuki angrily served them. Doumeki held out his bowl for fourths and Watanuki smacked him, yelling something about how she hadn't even had firsts. The night deteriorated from there, the group laughing the eating until everything was gone. Inuyasha grumpily ended up eating plain meat from the boar he killed, Watanuki breaking off pieces for him, and everyone was just fine with that. Watanuki cleaned the dishes in the stream with Kagome and they chatted about school things and life in modern day Japan, even if their Japans happened to be different.

"This is kinda nice." Kagome said after a while. "I haven't been able to talk to anyone about normal things in a while."

"It's nice that I can talk to a girl that deals with strange things like I do." Watanuki replied, drying one of her bowls. "Yuko's so strange herself that you can't make heads of tails of her, and Doumeki's a boy so he doesn't get it in the same way. Seeing spirits sucks when you're the only one who can see them."

"I know what you mean. I'm the only one in my group who can sense the Sacred Jewel shards, even if Miroku and Sango can detect malicious auras, being the only one with my type of senses gets tiring after a while." Kagome sighed. "I like to help, but sometimes I just want to stop."

"Me too." Watanuki agreed. "But, I always help anyway. I do what I can so that other people can be happy." She smiled softly, thinking about all her meddling in other people's wishes.

"Yeah, I end up helping anyway too." Kagome smiled at her new friend and they shared a giggle.

"Are you going to take all night?!" Inuyasha shouted at the girls irritably. "Get over here and go to sleep!"

"Shut up!" Watanuki and Kagome yelled back. They laughed again and gathered up the dishes anyway, walking back already closer than they were before.

Everyone settled down for the night, Inuyasha sitting down next to a tree, his sword folded into his arms as he crossed his legs to sleep. Miroku was sleeping on his side near Sango (who was sleeping on a transformed Kirara as a pillow) and Kagome and Shippo were sharing a sleeping bag. A drunk Yuko was bundled up in her sleeping bag with a drunk Mokona and Doumeki was in his sleeping bag as well. Watanuki was just finishing packing up the cooking things before giving Doumeki a goodnight kiss and scrambling into her own sleeping bag. What she didn't know was that Kagome was watching her and wished Inuyasha would give _her_ a goodnight kiss, envying Watanuki for her relationship, even if it was far from perfect as well. The camp quieted down, everyone falling asleep in no time after an exhausting day of walking and dimension hopping.

None of them really wanted to admit it, but they had all grown on each other in just a short time, becoming friends without even really noticing it.

Watanuki woke up in the middle of the night, uncomfortable from the hard ground she had to sleep on and her bladder was full so she really had to pee. She sighed and got out of her sleeping bag, grabbing her glasses before stumbling away as quietly as she could. She left the fire behind and went to find a nice dark spot to pee where no one could see her. She wandered about a soccer field away and decided to go to the bathroom near the little stream that ran by their camp. After she was done with her business, Watanuki splashed some clean water on her face and replaced her glasses on her nose. She sat down on the grass and looked up at the sky. The full moon was so bright and so close, and the stars blanketed the sky like fairy dust.

"Wow! You can all the stars in the sky tonight!" She gasped as she looked up, the starlight sparkling in her eyes (and on her glasses lenses for good measure too). "In Tokyo, all the bright city lights drown out the stars, so you can't see them. This is amazing!"

As she watched the sky, Watanuki didn't notice a pair of eyes looking up at her from the water. The eyes rippled along with the current, gazing as if through a mirror and studied the girl sitting on the bank. _Ah, this one looks pretty enough…silky black hair…thin…pale skin…the only thing that's wrong is her eyes…but she'll be perfect once I change a few things…and she smells good too...ink and paper, hair oil, perfume, and…food. Delicious morsel._ A voice whispered softly, the sweet tones blending into the wind. Watanuki shivered, feeling a cold finger run up her spine and she curled into herself, her eyes leaving the sky to look into the stream again. Instantly the eyes narrowed in pleasure and the water froze, smoothing out into a shining, mirror-like surface. Watanuki caught her reflection in the water, her soft face and flighty hair reflected back at her. Only those deep black eyes were not hers. She caught their gaze, and was hooked.

The eyes smiled at her, a sinister shine glinting up at her. Watanuki knew she was in trouble, knew that there was a spirit-demon somewhere nearby (the spider legs running up and down her skin told her so), but she couldn't look away, the eyes too compelling to look away.

 _Come closer. You're so pretty,_ a voice said in the girl's head. It was soft and calm, soothing, non-threatening. And those were the voices that Watanuki had learned to trust the least…especially if they were disembodied in her head. She wanted to scream for help, the sound trapped in her throat, choking her. She wanted to shout for Doumeki or Yuko or any of those weirdos they'd met today, anyone! But she couldn't speak, she couldn't move. Okay, she could move, her body leaning forward, peering into the mirror-stream, but she didn't want to do that! Her glasses slipped of her nose, clinking on the banks of the stream and the loss blurred Watanuki's vision. _See how bright your eyes are? How black your hair is? How pale your skin is? I can make them prettier. Your skin will be paler, smoother, perfect. Your hair will be blacker, shinier, and it will stay in place. Your eyes though…_ the voice paused, thinking as Watanuki leaned closer, her nose nearly touching the water. _Your eyes, however, they will be black from now on and they will be blank and dull. That's how a pretty little doll is supposed to be. Pretty, still and dead._ Watanuki's eyes shot wide in fear, trying with all her might to pull away but she couldn't, her nose finally breaking the water. That's when she disappeared, her body being sucked into the stream, falling through a portal and slipping away into the stream, her shrieks lodged in her throat as her feet vanished. After she was gone, the stream started flowing again, hurried and choppy, the night still quietly traveling on as if nothing had happened, as if the girl that sat by the stream no longer existed.

Dawn broke very early in the morning, waking up three non-morning people who were not happy. One was Kagome, who was used to this sort of thing but didn't like it at all. The sunlight hit her eyes and she groaned in irritation and then blinked open her eyes. Shippo turned in her arms and wacked her in the face with his fluffy tail. Now wide awake, Kagome stretched and yawned and poked the fox-demon awake. Shippo was up instantly, yawning cutely and then hopping out to go say hello to Kirara. The next non-morning person to be woken up was Mokona, the little fur ball getting bowled over by an over excited Shippo and hopping up in indignation and chasing the little demon around the camp in vengeance, causing a ruckass of curses, shouts and bouncing off people. Kirara's tail got stepped on, shocking her awake, Doumeki heard the scuffle and jumped up and out of the way before he could get dragged into it and both Sango and Miroku got rolled over as Mokona tackled Shippo into an impromptu wrestling match. Inuyasha got clobbered in the face by two sets of animal feet, causing him to curse the loudest and punch both Mokona and Shippo in the noggin, and they in turn started yelling at him. And that's what woke up the worst non-morning person.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?!" Yuko shouted, bristling in her sleeping bag, lifting her body onto her arms, her hair splitting to reveal one hot eye and giving all who looked at her a death glare to rival the Devil's. Her cranberry eyes flashed crimson with fire and she snarled in a very unlady-like fashion, scaring everyone present (even if they appeared calm and put together on the outside). "It is barely past dawn and you all are being unnecessarily loud and uncouth! Go back to sleep until a less ungodly hour passes or shut up!"

The only bad thing about that was now the witch was wide away and unable to go back to her beauty sleep, even as she rolled over and tried to get comfortable. It was no use and now she was even more irritated. Yuko hardly ever lost her temper, but when she did it was scary and she usually started ordering Watanuki around for no good reason. This time was no different.

"WATANUKI! Get me some tea and start cooking breakfast!" Yuko commanded with venom. As an afterthought she remembered her manners. "Please!" The camp was silent. There was no confirmation of orders or scrambling to do said orders or cursing while fulfilling said orders. All was silent, the whole group still spooked by the witch's fury and she waiting for her little servant to come scurrying to do her bidding. Yuko sat up and looked towards Watanuki's spot, ready to rip the girl a new one for being lazy (which, really, it was the witch who was being lazy) but her sleeping bag was empty. "Watanuki?" Yuko called again. She received no answer.

"Where is she?" Kagome asked, the first one to unfreeze after Yuko's outburst. Doumeki was looking around and couldn't see the girl anywhere. There campsite was in the middle of a field with a few sparse trees so there was nowhere to hide and the mountains were too far away to walk to in just the few hours that the seer had been gone.

"Watanuki!" Doumeki shouted.

"Watanuki!" Yuko shouted, irked that she had to get out of her sleeping bag to look for her employee.

"Watanuki!" Kagome started shouting too, trying to find her friend. Everyone else joined in, (Mokona being especially and insulting with its shouts) and walking around the area, except Inuyasha, who was busy sniffing the seer's sleeping bag. When shouting for a few minutes didn't produce the raven haired girl, worry started infecting the group.

"Do you think she wandered off?" Miroku asked.

"I don't think she'd be careless enough to get lost." Sango added. "She seemed smart enough, even if she's weird." Doumeki nodded in agreement. Watanuki was strange, but she was not stupid.

"She knows it's dangerous for her here, with all the demons around." Kagome joined in the conversation.

"But she attracts demons." Inuyasha huffed, folding his arms irritably. "That's enough reason for something bad to happen."

"Do you think…?" Kagome started. Immediately, the atmosphere changed, the slightly worried tone of irritation transforming into a cold anxiety.

Inuyasha started sniffing the ground, crouching down on all fours and followed the girl's scent; the rest of the group packed up camp and grabbed their things. Sango had changed into her demon slayer's uniform and Yuko somehow rolled out of her sleeping bag, flipped her hair and looked perfect from her head to her toes, not a wrinkle in her clothes, or a smudge of makeup on her face. Both Kagome and Doumeki had their bows at the ready as they followed the dog demon to the stream, the rest of the group coming behind them. Mokona was sitting on Yuko's shoulder and Shippo was hitching a ride with Kirara (still small). Inuyasha followed the alluring scent of the seer (lipstick, incense and delicious food – specifically ramen) a short distance away to a little stream that they'd been using for water and catching small fish. The scent drifted in two directions, and Inuyasha determined that the fainter scent on the rock was where the girl had been sitting and the stronger one (mixed with the scent of soil and grass) was where she'd gone to the bathroom. And that was it. There were only those two scents, the trail going cold.

"Why'd you stop?" Doumeki asked.

"The trail ends here." Inuyasha pointed to the rock by the stream. "She went pee and sat down. That's all I've got." The dog demon plopped down on the ground, crossing his legs and resting his head in his hand.

"So you don't know where she went?" Doumeki asked, his grip on his bow tightening.

"Nope."

"If she went somewhere, then it wasn't by walking." Miroku mused, his hand on his chin as he thought.

"A demon probably got her." Sango added, looking around the ground for signs of struggle and finding none. "It could've been flying and snagged her off the ground."

"Wouldn't she have run?" Shippo asked.

"Only if she'd seen it." The woman replied. Yuko was looking around the stream, trying to riddle out what had happened. There was a coldness that lingered around the spot, and it wasn't from the cool morning.

"Yuko?" Doumeki asked, watching the witch. The group fell silent, watching the otherworldly shop owner with a respect they didn't understand. Something glinted in the archer's eye and he looked down to see what it was. It was smooth and shiny and as the boy reached down to pick it up, his fingers closed in on Watanuki's glasses. Doumeki dusted them off, worry in his eyes and showed them to Yuko when she stood up from her inspection.

"She's been spirited away. There's a sort of magic lingering here." Yuko pointed to the rock and the stream. "A portal has been opened and closed, the pathway vanishing with it." She turned to Kagome's group, a question on her lips. "Have there been any strange disappearances here recently? In the village? Any strange stories or monsters?"

"When we were there yesterday, some of the villagers were asking me to find their lovely daughters who'd disappeared." Miroku replied, his eyes holding a lustful gleam. Sango punched his shoulder, a cross vein popping out on her forehead. "Ow! But-ha, ha, they had no clues to where the girls had gone." He continued sheepishly.

"A few men have disappeared too." Sango added, "But you're not interested in them," she hissed pointedly.

"No, I am not." Miroku replied assertively, nodding his head. He got punched in the arm again.

"The villagers did mention something about an abandoned mansion they thought the missing people might be, but they've never been able to find a way up to it." Kagome piped up. "The forest is so overgrown and wild that any group trying to get up there has been unsuccessful and people keep getting hurt every time they try."

"Sounds like a good place to hide people." Doumeki concluded.

"Yes, it does." Yuko. "Where's the mansion?" Yuko asked forcefully. Kagome and her friends all looked at each other and then back at Yuko. They shrugged. Now it was Yuko's turn to have a cross vein pop out of her head. "We're going back to that village and getting directions!" She grabbed as many people as she could by their collars and forcefully dragged them back to the village, Doumeki trotting along behind her.

Watanuki was somewhere dark, the blackness claustrophobic.

Oh wait, her eyes were closed.

The seer opened her heavy eyelids and looked around her, her vision blurred and watery. She was lying down in a huge room – that much she could tell with her bad eye sight. _Where are my glasses?_ The girl turned her foggy head from side to side, looking as her fingers searched for her spectacles. She couldn't find them and she knew she was going to get a headache, and the spots of color and white in the dim room weren't helping. _What are those?_ Watanuki sat up shakily, and looked around squinting. She was alone, and surrounded by the spots of color that were all around the walls and floor. Watanuki's body felt heavy, sore and achy all over. She could hardly move, but she forced herself closer to the colors and the white that surrounded her. She flipped onto her knees and crawled over, each bone in her body creaking and shrieking for her to stop moving, clanking in protest. It took a long time to crawl to the edge of the room, she was so slow and heavy but she finally made it. Watanuki squinted again, studying the object propped against a sea of other objects and colors. It was a doll. A clay or porcelain doll wrapped in a bright kimono with perfectly placed black hair and blank, black eyes. Watanuki looked behind the first doll and saw another doll and another doll, all in different clothes and sizes, some huge and some small. _They're all dolls!_

Watanuki reached out to pick up one of the small dolls, her white hand coming up to touch it. Only she couldn't feel the doll's hair nor the doll's body or clothes, she couldn't even bend her fingers now, the stiffness too hard to move. That scared her. The seer looked down, holding up her hand and saw that her fingers were stuck together in a feminine pose, like holding a cup or a fan and they were white as snow, shiny like doll's. Watanuki looked from her fingers to the doll, horror morphing onto her face with every creak and scrape of her neck as she moved.

 _I'm turning into a doll!_ She realized, the stiffness in her body, the complete whiteness of her skin finally making sense.

She tried to scream, but her mouth was sealed shut and if she could see herself she'd be appalled by the demure smile plastered on her red, red lips. Only her eyes were still normal: bright, wide, and panicked. Watanuki fell backwards, trying to escape the doll's gazes on her and to escape herself. But she was clumsy, heavy and her legs didn't work right anymore. She fell, clanking to the ground, her screams still trapped in her chest.

"Now, now. Don't tip, dear. We wouldn't want you to crack." A sickly smooth voice said, entering the room. Watanuki's head snapped around with a shriek, her blurry gaze falling on what she assumed was a beautiful woman. The woman drew nearer so Watanuki could see her. She looked like a doll herself, a living breathing work or art. Her skin was as pale as snow, her hair as black as ink and pulled into elaborate twists and buns just like Yuko's would be and she was dressed in the most colorful, elegant and elaborate kimono Watanuki had ever seen. Her eyes were as black as night and they were the same ones she'd seen in the water, the ones that drew her in and kidnapped her. She was holding a hand mirror up to the seer's face, her lips smiling softly and threateningly at the same time (if that was possible). "See? We don't want to you break, you're too pretty for that. But not as pretty as me, of course."

Watanuki looked into the mirror, her eyes skipping over the huge crake in the surface to glue themselves to her face. She was a doll now too, her polite smile revealed and her eyes growing dimmer with each passing moment. She was in a kimono too, she hadn't noticed that until now, dressed in bright reds and blues and gold. Watanuki wanted to cry, but her eyes wouldn't, couldn't. The doll-woman smiled at her.

"You're so pretty and you'll be perfect for my display. It'll be complete now. The other girls I have just don't have the beauty that you do and I'm happy that you're going to stay with me…forever. But if you're lonely, I could always go fetch some of those women I saw with you…that way you wouldn't be without company." The mirror was taken away and Watanuki tried to move, trying to scream obstinacies at the woman if she did anything to any of her friends, but it was even harder now, her limbs freezing up. "Now, now. Let's get you into position. Wouldn't want you to settle into the wrong pose. You need to be sitting." The doll woman put her hands on Watanuki's legs and arms, the girl trying to cry over the fact that she couldn't feel any of it, her skin desensitized by her transformation. She was maneuvered into a kneeling pose, her hands sitting daintily on her lap. "There. Now you're ready to be my sake bearer." The doll-woman ran her pale hand down Watanuki's cheek stroking the girl's hardening skin and smiling with pleasure. She left soon after, her elegant robes dragging behind her, leaving Watanuki alone again, surrounded by the dolls that the seer was beginning to suspect were actual people.

Watanuki wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, but she couldn't even move at this point, her limbs frozen. She wanted her friends, including Inuyasha (even if he was a rude bastard), she wanted to be saved…she even wanted Yuko and the fur ball to come to her rescue if need be. But she really wanted Doumeki right now. She wanted him to pull her out of this mess just like he always did and hold her close afterwards, whispering comforts to her in his strong arms. But, Watanuki wasn't given any of these things. Instead, she was given the silence of the dolls and despair as her body finished hardening into a pale, smooth complexion. _Save me…please…save me! Please come for me! Don't leave me here all alone!_ Watanuki pleaded in her mind, everything was heavy now, even her head as her vision grew dim and then completely dark.

She couldn't even cry as she lost consciousness, her eyes dulling as they stared straight ahead in the gloom.

It had been two days since Watanuki had disappeared and Doumeki was going out of his mind with worry. Of course, he only looked mildly worried, but inside, he was dying without his girlfriend. Right now, he was sitting outside an inn in the village, listlessly looking at Watanuki's day bag by his feet, Mokona, Shippo and Kagome to keep him company. Miroku was going around the town with Yuko (the woman had him in a choke hold half the time to keep his hands away from her butt) and Sango was out with Kirara and Inuyasha, patrolling the area for any signs of demons or Watanuki herself. Doumeki just tapped his bow on his shoulder impatiently and held Watanuki's glasses carefully. Kagome looked at him from the corner of her eyes, worry written all over her face as well.

"We'll find her, Doumeki. Don't you worry." Kagome gave him sympathetic smile.

"She's always in some sort of trouble." Doumeki started, his voice soft and low.

"Yeah she is!" Mokona piped up, jumping around the porch.

"But usually, I'm close enough to get there, to help or ward off spirits for her. But here…" Doumeki looked around this unfamiliar town, this unfamiliar world. "I don't know where I need to go or what I need to do to help her."

"I'm sure that Watanuki's…well, not fine per say…but…" Kagome didn't know how to describe what she was trying to saw.

"She's not stupid, but she is self-sacrificing which is a bitch." Doumeki sighed. "She doesn't know when to stop or what to do when someone else is in trouble or if her friends are threatened."

"Yeah, Kagome's the same way to a point." Shippo commented, licking his lollipop to pass the time. When he wasn't paying attention, Mokona hopped up and crunched off the whole sucker in its mouth.

"Shippo!" The priestess admonished.

"Well, it's true. Several times when you wanted to quit." The fox demon explained. "Inuyahsa had to pull you back."

"Yeah, but I also chose to come back." Kagome huffed.

"And we're glad you did!" Shippo smiled. Then the fox demon noticed his sucker and started fighting with a satisfied Mokona until Kagome gave both of them a new sucker. Doumeki watched the exchange, his face never showing his emotions, but it was nice to be with people like this. They were optimistic where his was pessimistic, the yanked up his gloomy mood without even really trying. Before Doumeki could speak again, Inuyasha and Sango with Kirara came back, the latter swooping in from the sky, and the former leaping off of the roof tops to the ground.

"Find anything?" Kagome asked hopefully.

"Nah. I can't pick up her scent anywhere." Inuyasha sighed, sniffing.

"And if whoever has her is a demon or someone with spiritual power, they've put up a barrier to dissipate their aura and location." Sango added, dismounting her giant cat and brushing off her demons-slayer outfit. Kirara burst into flames and became small, running up Sango and settling on her shoulder. She mewed sadly, missing her new, good smelling friend and sad because she couldn't find her. "We couldn't see anything from the sky except forest, much less a mansion."

That report brought the mood of the whole group down and Sango went inside the inn to order something to eat. Inuyasha plopped down on the inn's porch with everyone else, leaning back and grumbling at their situation. Sango came out with tea and rice balls, passing around the platter to everyone and they all ate in a moody silence. To Doumeki, the rice tasted like sawdust, and he only ate one (which _never_ happened). It just wasn't Watanuki's cooking. Silence ensued, everyone put off from talking by their apparent failure to find one girl. A few minutes, later, Yuko and Miroku walked up, the witch heading straight towards the food to get a snack. She took one bite of her rice ball and her face dropped, depressed lines materializing above her head.

"Oh god, this is awful." She moaned dramatically (but quietly so the cook wouldn't hear her – she knew how emotional chefs get when you insult them after the time Watanuki chased her around the house with a still-hot frying pan). "I want my dear Watanuki's cooking!"

"Well, that's kinda a problem right now." Inuyasha huffed. "Unless you've had more luck than us." Inuyasha nodded to the depressed people around him.

"Actually, we have." Instantly the mood shifted from doom and gloom to hopeful as Miroku spoke.

"Did you find where she is?" Kagome asked excitedly, jumping up with a smile.

"Well, we found the mansion," Yuko said between mouthfuls, "but we don't _know_ if she's there."

"Where is it?" Doumeki asked, standing up and getting ready to move out.

"An old man told us where the mansion is in the mountains when he was young and with Inuyasha's sharp nose we should be able to find it." The monk informed.

"It took us two whole days to get those directions?!" Inuyasha groaned.

"Next time, we're going straight to the old people." Kagome agreed.

"Onward!" Yuko crowed, striking a dramatic pose with her arm out, holding a rice ball. "To food!"

"You really think Watanuki's going to want to cook after this?" Doumeki asked skepticly, his face back it its usual deadpan.

"She's going to have too! My palate is sick of this peasant food!" A chopstick flew out of the inn's door, clocking Yuko on the back of her head.

"You really need to shut your mouth sometimes." Inuyasha insulted, crossing his arms smugly.

"Take your own advice." Kagome shot back.

"Can we go now?" Doumeki asked, already halfway down the street.

"Wait up Doumeki! You don't even know the way!" Yuko shouted, running after him.

"Wait, Yuko! You don't know the way either!" Miroku called, running after the woman's butt. "You were too busy being hungry to listen to the old man!" His hand was outstretched, reaching for the witch's volumtous behind even though he knew he was going to get slapped for it.

"Miroku, get back here!" Sango picked up her Hiraikotsu and dashed after the monk, grabbing his collar before he groped Yuko and then dragged him along behind her. Kirara jumped off Sango's shoulder and transformed back into her large form, roaring in excitement as they went to find her good-smelling friend.

"Shall we go?" Kagome asked, turning to Inuyasha.

"Che. Why not? They're going to be lost without us." He huffed. Shippo hopped onto Kagome's shoulder as she jumped onto Inuyasha's back, the half demon's hands and arm supporting her.

"Yuko! Get on the cat already!" Sango called, letting Miroku go and jumping on Kirara herself. The witch gracefully leapt onto the demon as she flew next to her and settled in behind the demon slayer.

"Oh, Doumeki!~" The shop owner called. "Hop on!" The archer jumped, taking the final seat on the demon cat.

"What about me?" Miroku asked, running alongside the trio and Kirara.

"You can walk." Yuko and Sango said harshly, looking at the man with a death glare.

"Too bad, Miroku!" Inuyasha caught up to everyone and they ran out of the village and into the mountains, happy to finally be able to move.

Everything was dark again as Watanuki drifted along. She didn't know where she was or if she was even still alive. That is…until she dropped out of wherever she was and landed hard on her ass.

"Ow!" Watanuki rubbed her butt and looked around, surprised to find herself able to move normally. She was in between two tall hedges, so tall that they stretched up to the sky, thick mists swirling around the plants. Watanuki looked forward along the path the hedges made and then looked behind her, finding a similar path, only a lot shorter. She stood up and walked down to the wall of leaves and branches and found that it wasn't a dead end, but a turn to the right, like a maze. _Is that what this is? A maze? Is this a dream?_ Watanuki looked behind her, seeing nothing but a long straight path behind her. _If there's one thing Yuko taught me, never take the easy way out. Something will eat you or some such shit. But then again…everything's complicated with Yuko._ Watanuki shrugged and took the turn. She walked long the hedges, hand brushing the leaves.

The first odd thing that popped up as she twisted and turned through the maze were the mirrors that floated along the hedges. She walked up to one of them and peered inside. Instead of reflecting her face, Watanuki saw memories. Her memories. She watched as she walked to elementary school alone, being followed by a spirit and being tormented by the spirit. She'd tried to tell someone, anyone what was following her, but they didn't believe her. They turned away from the strange child, ignoring her cries for help. But there wasn't any help for her.

Watanuki shivered as she watched her childhood, feeling that deep sense of loneliness she'd felt back then swirling around in her gut. Watanuki left that mirror, the dark fingers of rejection and isolation caressing her shoulders, her back, her face – like a spirit following her again.

The next mirror was much like the first, only the girl was older, and she didn't ask anyone for help. She was cleaning up a classroom after school, wiping the windows alone because nobody wanted to be near the "freak." She was trying not to cry, not to need anyone when the spirit pounced, latching onto her back and trying to possess her, to eat her. Watanuki didn't scream. Screaming brought people and they couldn't see or feel what she was, they'd just think she was being weird again, trying to get attention. Either that, or worse: no one would come at all. Watanuki beat off the mass of negative energy, completely exhausting herself in the process as it finally let go. She smiled triumphantly, but it was a cold, empty joy. She was still alone. The girl walked away from the mirror, her mood plummeting even further.

Watanuki didn't want to look into any other mirrors if all they were going to reflect back at her was her misery, but she tried one more time. But before she did, the girl walked down several mirrors and two turns to see if she could get away from the depressing memories. As she walked, the seer ran into someone else in the maze. It was a girl, a little younger than her with a beautiful face and long black hair. She was dressed like a princess, her elaborate kimono building layers upon layers on her small frame. The girl was beautiful, no doubt, but her eyes were blank as she stared straight ahead. Watanuki was about to speak to the girl, to ask where they were and what they were going here when her mouth was fused shut. She tried to move her lips, but couldn't. It was like they were glued together, preventing her from speaking at all. Then the feeling of dread climbed up her spine and she knew if she spoke to this girl there would be hell to pay. And then Watanuki noticed that there were other women, and men who were wandering in and out of the maze, the mists hiding and reveling people in complete silence. _I guess I can't talk to any of them. We're all silent here._

Watanuki turned away from the princess-girl and randomly chose another mirror to investigate, hoping that it was a happier memory. As she looked in the glass, she didn't know if this memory was happy or not. She was arguing with Doumeki as they walked home from school. Watanuki was railing him for something and he just plugged his ears and walked on with her. After the seer ran out of steam, she just stomped along in silence, refusing to look at Doumeki. Suddenly, the boy grabbed her hand and yanked her to his side, saving her from crashing into a pair of movers who were carrying a bunch of boxes into a house. Watanuki was stunned, frozen in Doumeki's arms. Then she snapped at him, a deep blush on her face and broke his grip so she didn't have to touch him anymore. As she dashed for Yuko's shop in embarrassment, Doumeki smiled at her and just leisurely walked along, knowing he'd catch up sooner or later.

The raven smiled at that memory, recalling that it was about that time that she realized that she liked Doumeki. She moved onto the next mirror and the next. Days in Yuko's shop, errands she'd run, afternoon's spent cooking, nightly walks in Doumeki's company and secret kisses they'd shared when no one was looking. Watanuki enjoyed these memories more, even if some were fraught with spirit and misfortune, she had Yuko and she had Doumeki to bail her out. She walked up to another mirror, finding that this one involved Inuyasha and Kagome. Both their groups were sprawled around a campfire, eating and teasing each other like they'd known each other forever instead of just a few short hours. The scene pulled at Watanuki's heart, the joy and happiness she'd felt (even if she was stuck cooking the entire time) was something she craved. She had been deprived of that feeling most of her life and she still craved it, wanted it…wanting to be accepted, to have friends.

"I have to get out." She whispered, the need to be with her friends overpowering any apprehension and doubt that she'd felt. She screamed and shouted, trying to get anyone attention. If she couldn't speak to any of the other people here, then she'd just have to do it by yelling at no one. But it was the same as when she was a child, the other people in the maze ignored her, just walking among their own memories like they were just content to stay here forever.

She couldn't stay here. She needed to get out. Watanuki started running, searching for an exit, pouching on the branches of the hedges that were caging her in. She screamed, her voice rising to the sky, she kicked and clawed, the leaves and branches unyielding. But they shook. They shook with her anger and her desperation.

Her skin cracked.

Outside her mind, the doll-woman was sitting next to the doll Watanuki. She was unhappy. The spell she'd placed on this girl wasn't holding well, it kept cracking, flaking – evident by the crack over the girl's right eye, running up and down like tears.

"Why is it not working?" She hissed, tapping her fingers impatiently. "Is she a priestess? A demon of some sort?" Then the woman had a thought break through her frustration. "Ah…that might work. The woman dug out her cracked mirror, holding to her beautiful face. Her pale fingers came up and touched the surface of the glass. It rippled, and she reached inside the mirror. She drew her hand out a few seconds later, holding a shining, murky, purple jewel shard in her fingertips. It was just one of a the few she had, but it should work. "Suppress her spirit." She intoned, clenching the shard in her fist tightly and then opening her palm, the jewel shining a malevolent black. She pressed the sharp jewel into the girl's cracked eye, watching it fuse into her body. The girl's body seized once, the intrusion shocking her and then lay still, her doll-skin fusing together perfectly.

"Now you are mine." The doll-woman cooed, stroking her new toy's cheek.

Inside the maze, Watanuki collapsed on the ground, her eyes blanking out and turning black like the jewel lodged into her once-bronzed eye.

They were high up in the mountains, following an animal trail that wound through the trees and ever higher into the forest.

"Are we there yet?" Shippo asked, a slightly irritating whine in his voice.

"Shut up, Shippo." Inuyasha snapped, jumping over a fallen log as he carried the fox-demon and Kagome through the forest. Kirara was tiring from carrying her load of three people and they had to stop for breaks every once in a while so she could rest. Miroku was glad for the breaks as well since he was the only human who was forced to run.

"We'll be there soon, Shippo." Kagome assured. "I can sense something up ahead."

"A jewel shard?" Inuyasha asked

"I don't sense anything yet." Miroku stated.

"We must still be outside the barrier. We'll find it soon." Sango added.

"Yes," Yuko started. "We're getting close."

"Hm," was all Doumeki said. A few minutes later, they found the barrier, a huge half sphere of swirling, webbed energy repelling everything outside it. Kirara landed and the ground and everyone dismounted, even Inuyasha let Kagome and Shippo down, everyone turning serious and focusing on the task at hand.

"I cannot interfere any more than I already have. Your wish will be granted here…if you choose to act." Yuko said suddenly, sitting down on a rock to smoke her pipe.

"So the jewel shards are nearby?" Inuyasha asked the witch.

"Yes! It's weak, but I can sense one...two maybe." Kagome affirmed. "I can't tell for sure with the barrier still up.

"Well, well. It's our lucky day!" Inuyasha drew his swords, the katana transforming into a blade resembling a huge fang with a furry cross guard. The blade shimmered into a deep red and Inuyasha rested his sword on his shoulder until they were ready to move.

"That's over kill." Doumeki noted, shouldering his bow and placing Watanuki's bag by Yuko.

"Shut up. The Tessaiga is powerful. Who cares what it looks like?" The half-demon huffed. "Besides, I think its pretty badass."

"Whatever you say." Doumeki mocked. Before Inuyasha could tear his head off, Yuko spoke again.

"Doumeki." The archer turned at his name. Yuko held out Mokona and the fur ball hopped from her hand onto his shoulder in one huge bound. "Take Mokona with you."

"Sure." Doumeki nodded as the creature got comfy on his shoulder.

"And, please bring Watanuki back." Yuko asked sincerely, smiling mysteriously. "I'd hate to have her debt to me go unpaid."

And Doumeki knew that that was just the way Yuko showed that she cared, even if it sounded a little heartless.

"Can we go now?" Inuyasha grumped.

"Yeah." Doumeki nodded again, his bronze eyes blazing. Inuyasha nodded, feeling his own emotions mirroring the other boys, knowing just how the archer was feeling right now. He'd felt that way many times where his friends were in trouble, especially when it came to Kagome. The half demon was even feeling the same emotions directed towards Watanuki, even though they'd only known each other for one day. She was so similar to Kagome and so familiar to his own personality that they'd become the sort of friends where every conversation they had was an argument and every taunt and jibe hid affection. Even that one meal they'd all shared together, Watanuki was accomidating to Inuyasha, cooking things she thought he'd be able to eat (even if they were still too spicy in his opinion). Doumeki looked and Inuyasha and the half demon stared back. They'd reached a sort of understanding, one shared by a mutual need even if they were still strangers.

"Then let's go." Inuyasha swung the Tessaiga off of his shoulder, taking both of his clawed hands and gripping the blade tightly. The red blade flashed, gathering energy for the strike. He didn't even have to use the Wind Scar for this and just charged, jumping high into the air, swinging his sword down onto the barrier, splitting the energy field and watched as it dissipated into nothingness

"I sense four jewel shards!" Kagome shouted. "And they're tainted. We need to hurry."

"I sense and evil aura up ahead." Miroku added.

"Me too." Sango agreed.

"Then let's go!" Inuyasha ran ahead, spurring everyone to follow behind him. As they ran into the forest, Yuko watched them go, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air.

"Good luck." She whispered content just to wait until they came back if that was inevitability's course.

The path was clear now, a road long forgotten leading up to the huge, sprawling mansion they were looking for. The building was shadowed among the trees, dark even in the daylight that filtered in through the branches of the forest. It was darker still by the malicious aura that roamed the grounds and covered the walls. The group reached the mansion and paused for a moment, studying the terrain and checking for guards. Inuyasha just wanted to barge in, but Miroku convinced him to wait for just a moment.

"I don't see anyone…or anything." Kagome said, stating the obvious. To all appearances, the mansion was uninhabited, the only indication of life coming from the demonic aura surrounding the place.

"Then we should go in." Inuyasha grumped.

"Just be careful." Sango warned, taking her Hiraikotsu off her shoulder.

"Don't have to tell me!" The half demon ran forwards again, sword at the ready as everyone ran in behind him.

"Don't tell that to Inuyasha, Sango! Since when is he ever careful?" Miroku sighed, face palming his forehead.

"I wasn't just talking to him!" The demon slayer shot back, she was going to say more when they reached the door of the house.

They burst into the mansion, weapons at the ready, prepared for any and all attacks.

"KAGO-" Inuyasha started yelling and then cut off.

"What?" The priestess snapped in irritation and slight confusion.

"Well, most of the time we're saving you and calling your name is habit. But I remembered that you're right here, so it threw me off." The half-demon replied bluntly.

"You're not always saving me!" Kagome grumbled.

"Yes he is." Miroku, Sango and Shippo chorused. Kirara meowed in agreement, nodding her big head.

"You're the worst!" Kagome hissed at them, reminding Doumeki a lot of his girlfriend.

"So…what do we yell now that it's not 'Kagome?'" Shippo asked innocently.

"Watanuki!" Doumeki yelled, getting fed up with waiting and running into the first room of the mansion, bow at the ready.

"That works." Shippo shrugged.

"Watanuki!" They all shouted as they searched the mansion. They entryway was empty and so was the first room, but they could all sense that something was very wrong, and ominous presence clouding the building.

"Something stinks." Inyasha growled, tightening his grip on Tessaiga's worn handle. The sword clinked in agreement.

"I sense the jewel shards too. They're deeper in." Kagome informed the others, pulling and arrow out of her quiver and notching it in her bow.

"Yes, there's definitely a demon here." Miroku added, sensing a disgusting aura swirling around them. Shippo hid behind Kirara's head, his fox tail poking out from the side. Doumeki's eyes narrowed, concerned that his shared eye with Watanuki wasn't picking up anything from the girl, its blurred sight only showing what was in front of him. Something was very wrong. He stepped into the next room. That's when things got really creepy.

Countless blank eyes stared down at the group, black and soulless as torches flickered to life on their own accord. There were hundreds of dolls sitting or standing on displays surrounding the room, each wearing different kimonos or armor, and in all shapes and sizes. It was as if a great council was watching the group while they walked through.

"This is really creepy. I feel like they're watching me." Kagome stuck close to Inuyasha, watching the dolls herself.

"They're just dolls, Kagome." He said. And right as the words left his mouth, the dolls started to move, scraping their wood and clay limbs as they leapt at the intruders.

" You just had to say it!" Kagome mocked the half demon.

"Shut up!" Inuyasha blocked an attack with his sword and pushed three of the dolls off him. He swung at them, trying to slice the dolls, but they leaped out of the way. Sango was warding off two more and Miroku was dealing with three of his own. Shippo was knocked off Kagome's shoulder by a small doll and started wrestling with it on the floor. Kagome jumped around all the tiny dolls at her feet and swung her bow to hit them away. Doumeki was pushing back a few dolls on his own while Mokona laughed, jumping on top of the dolls and shoving them into other dolls as he bounced around. The rabbit-creature's laugh drew Kagome's attention as she tried to pull out an arrow, but a girl doll was lodged inside her quiver, tangling and lodging itself inside. She turned just in time to see Mokona knocked a doll over and shatter the small girls face. Behind the doll face, there was a human face, slack and blank as its soul floated upwards and through the ceiling as it disappeared.

"Uh oh! I broke it!~" Mokona stopped hopping and looked down at the broken person. "Something's not right about this!"

"Those are real people!" Kagome whispered in horror. She had to tell everyone else."Don't shatter them!" Kagome yelled, blocking a child-sized doll with her bow.

"Why the hell not?" Inuyasha yelled back, fighting with a surprisingly strong samurai doll that reached up to his chest. Their swords clashed again and again, but Inuyasha didn't crack the doll, still listening to Kagome's warning and shoving the doll off him.

"Because they're alive!"

"I can see that!" The half demon replied, used his sword as a shield as three other dolls jumped on him.

"Not like that! There's real souls inside! I can see them!" Kagome shouted back, pushing back another doll. "They're transformed people! Look!" She pointed to Mokona's broken doll and everyone saw the tiny, real, human face behind the doll's mask. There was a moment of silence between the group, all thinking about what that meant.

"This just got a lot harder." Miroku stated.

"I'll say!" Inuyasha snapped.

"We can't shatter them because the souls inside the dolls are still real people. They're not like Kikiyo who uses souls of the already dead to animate her body. These people are trapped!" Kagome went on.

"We get it already!" Inuyasha yelled. Sango shielded herself from a few dolls and Kirara ran past and batted them away, careful not to break the dolls. They bapped into the wall and stopped moving. Sango and Kirara looked at them in confusion.

"Huh?" She said. Miroku saw what had happened and tried the same thing, pushing the dolls on his staff into the wall. They smacked their heads and slumped down.

"What the?" He asked.

"It seems that if we hit a certain part on their heads they stop moving." Doumeki observed, picking up one of the tiny dolls and holding it by the kimono. He felt around the little girl's head and felt an invisible string was coming out of the top of her hair. Doumeki took the doll and carefully squeezed the string when he heard a soft snap. The doll went limp in his hands and he put it down. "There's a string on top of their heads, controlling them like a puppet, if you snap it they stop moving. It doesn't seem to affect their souls."

"Seriously?" Inuyasha pushed his dolls back into the wall, hitting their heads, but they just stood back up and started attacking again. "What the hell?!" The half demon complained. Kagome knocked out a few of her dolls by smacking the back of their heads with her hands.

"Sorry Inuyasha. Looks like you need some sort of spiritual power and you're demon aura doesn't cut it." The girl informed him.

"God dammit!" Inuyasha then pushed his dolls onto Kagome. "Then I'll herd them your way and you get rid of them!"

"Don't push your work on me!" She complained.

"Do you want me to break them? Because I will!" He threatened.

"Fine! Send them this way!" Inuyasha acted as a filter, stopping the dolls and then pushing them to Kagome so she could sever their strings with her fingers or the wall, whatever was faster. It worked for a while until a fresh wave of dolls tottered in overwhelming the group.

"We're not getting anywhere!" Inuyasha grunted, shielding Kagome form some more samurai dolls.

"We can't waste anymore time here! We're so close!" Kagome yelled, blocking another attack of tiny dolls. Suddenly there was a break and Inuyasha scooped up the priestess and jumped into the free space by the door to get a better position.

"Go on ahead!" Sango shouted. "We'll hold them here!"

"Are you sure?" Kagome yelled back. Doumeki took his chance too and ran to the door.

"Will you be alright?" Doumeki asked.

"Yeah! We'll be fine!" Miroku called.

"Just get that demon and save Watanuki for us!" Sango yelled, swatting another handful of the smaller dolls. Miroku pushed one of the bigger dolls back and severed the puppet string.

"Get going!" The monk ordered.

"Right!" Inuyasha nodded, grabbing Kagome's hand and pulling her into the next room. Doumeki and Mokona followed quickly behind. There were very few dolls in this room, most of them already having moved into the room where Sango and Miroku were. The four of them quickly took care of the dolls and ran into the next room. As they traveled through the mansion, the dolls just kept coming, as if from an endless void because there were more the further they went in. It was tiring to have to incapacitate the little people than it was to just kill them, but they knew they couldn't do that. By the time they reached the back rooms of the mansion, they were all tired, worn down by combat. Even Inuyasha was panting, his tendency for brute force completely useless in this situation. Doumeki was very athletic (a fact that his girlfriend despised) and even he was getting battered. Mokona was a ball of energy still and Shippo was too busy hiding behind Kagome's hair, only occasionally using his fox magic or fox fire to guard Kagome when a doll slipped past her.

"Don't these things ever get tired?" Shippo asked, batting a doll with his tail as it jumped to get Kagome.

"I just want to know if they're ever going to run out of back up!" Inuyasha growled, swinging Tessaiga. The dolls jumped back, avoiding the flat of his blade and attacking again.

"I want to know where Watanuki is." Doumeki said calmly, sweeping a groups of miniscule dolls into the wall to pile them up. "We've checked almost every room in the mansion and we still haven't found her."

"Do you think she's been turned into a doll and we just haven't noticed it?" Kagome asked.

"No. All these dolls still hold their own scent and I haven't smelled her ramen scent." Inuyasha said, pushing two dolls towards Doumeki to handle.

"She smells like ramen?" Doumeki asked, severing the doll's puppet strings and sweeping them out of the way.

"Yeah, so?"

"It's just an odd smell for a girl." The boy replied.

"She smells like the forest to me! Remember? And Kirara says she smells like lilies and cat treats." Shippo piped up.

"Yuko did say that her blood was alluring to demons. Maybe she smells like whatever appeals to each individual demons." Doumeki mused.

"Can we discuss this later?!" Inuyasha snapped. "We're kina busy right now!"

"Yeah!~" Mokona agreed. "Onward!~" The little fur ball pointed into the next room.

"Don't give me orders!" The half demon growled, sounding and looking akin to Watanuki when she was in a bad room. Kagome giggled despite herself and Doumeki almost smiled.

"Come on." Doumeki prompted, running into the next room once he and Kagome had dealt with the last of the dolls in this chamber.

They ran into the next room and were surprised that none of the dolls that were displayed in this room were moving. They were the most beautiful dolls out of all the ones they'd see today, sitting on Hinamatsuri platforms, full-sized and dressed in elaborate kimonos and surrounded by ornate furniture. The room was quiet, too quiet and an evil presence pressed down on the small group. Kagome shivered, Shippo ducking behind her hair again, his tail poofed in fear. Inuyasha bristled, smiling in pleasure as he smelled the presence of a strong enemy. He also smelled something else.

"I smell ramen now!" He said to the others. "She's close."

"Watanuki!" Doumeki shouted, trying to get an answer. Silence.

"I sense the jewel shards too. One's on the platform!" Karome pointed up towards the top of the room. On the second highest tier, she could see a tainted jewel shard lodged in the neck of a door, one of the sake bearers for the imperial couple on the top platform. That doll was seated, full sized just like all the others in layers and layers of embroidered fabric and her hair done up in traditional buns. She looked just like any other doll until Kagome looked at her eyes. There was one blue and one bronze.

"Watanuki! She's on the platform!" The priestess shouted. "One of the jewel shards is in her neck! It's black!"

"That means she put up a fight." Inuyasha grinned.

"Huh?" Doumeki asked.

"When demons or people put jewel shards in people's bodies it's to posses and command them and the more tainted the jewel is, the harder it was to posses them." The half demon explained, gripping his sword tightly. His senses were on high alert. It would be too easy just to take the seer back without any resistance. The demon was here somewhere and he was going to be ready for it. "She gave the demon enough trouble to demand the use of a shard to turn her into a doll."

"Watanuk's always trouble." Doumeki commented, half expecting the doll-Watanuki to jump down off the platform and rip him a new one for insulting her. But she didn't and that was the sad part. Doumeki looked up at his girl and resisted the urge to sigh. She'd gotten herself into trouble again, he wasn't surprised but now that he saw what had happened to her, Doumeki was even more worried. She didn't get eaten (thank god) but she was a doll and by extension a puppet, judging on how the demon's other dolls functioned. If she was used as a guard or a decoy, they couldn't do anything to harm her, just like the others, but this time is was more personal. Doumeki's eyes narrowed, trying to see if he could see what Watanuki was seeing through their shared eye, but her eye was blank and all he saw was the room through his crappy vision.

A poisonous laugh floated down from the corners of the room, shocking the foursome out of their thoughts.

"You are absolutely right. The girl did give me considerable trouble." The sweet voice said. "But she was worth every bit of it. Just look how she perfectly finishes my display." As the voice talked, a woman floated down through the ceiling and hovered next to Watanuki, stroking the girl's face with bone white fingers. She was beautiful, more like a goddess than a woman as her robe floated around her. Her jet black hair rivaled Watanuki's and her skin was pale like a dolls. "So…Watanuki's her name? How quaint. Watanuki? Your friends are here to play, they've been looking for you for a long time, precious." The demon smiled softly, her beauty able to stun the most hardened of hearts. Only Inuyasha wasn't impressed, Kagome was to worried about Watanuki, Shippo was too young to get that sort of smile and Doumeki was still looking at Watanuki.

"It's a good thing we left Miroku behind." Inuyasha whispered, knowing that the monk would've been charmed by that smile.

"Um hm." Kagome, Shippo and Doumeki nodded in chorus. Mokona giggled.

"I wouldn't be laughing if I were you," The doll-woman hissed. "You see, I've just finished my collection and I can't have you ruining it." The woman held out one of her hands and crooked a finger, beckoning several other human-sized dolls into the room, complete in samurai attire.

"Shit!" Inuyasha swore, as he had to guard again, unable to attack with live people trapped inside the puppets. "Kagome! Where are the other jewel shards? You sensed more than one right?"

"Yeah! They're in the mirror she's holding!" Inuyasha looked up and saw that the demon was holding a hand mirror, the surface cracked.

"It looks like Kana's mirror!" Shippo shouted.

"Kana?" Doumeki asked. He was so confused, but he didn't show it, instead just trying to fight his way to Watanuki.

"We'll tell you later!" Kagome shouted back, yanking out an arrow (and the tiny doll wedged in her quiver in the process) and notched it, aiming for the demon. She shot, the purifying arrow narrowly missing the demon as she dodged. The arrow lodged itself into the ceiling, useless now. However, the pure aura on the arrow did effect the demon, the purifying power dusting her shoulder. The demon yowled in pain, her hands cracking as she was partially purified. In retaliation, the demon summoned more dolls and set them upon the group, her skin cracking as she strained her powers.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha snapped, trying to ward off as many of the dolls as he could. There were too many and Doumeki had to help, dodging swords and fists and pushing the dolls back, aiming to sever their puppet strings. "Don't miss! You just caused more trouble!"

"Well, sorry!" The girl hissed back. "She's fast!"

"Then don't miss again!" The half demon ordered.

"Fine!"

"Quit arguing you two!" Shippo yelled, setting fire to a doll's kimono. The doll wasn't fazed by the attack and the little fox demon yelped as the doll grabbed at him. He scurried off the hid behind Kagome's leg.

"Whee!" Mokona squealed as it jumped around, bouncing off the doll's and distracting them to buy time. Kagome notched another arrow and aimed upwards. She released the arrow and the demon dodged the sacred object again.

"Kagome!" Inuyasa complained. Just then, another shining arrow shot into the arm, Domeki's bow empty of his purifying power. The demon, distracted by Kagome's arrow, didn't have enough time to dodge the arrow fast enough, the spear of energy digging into her shoulder. The demon howled in anguish and ripped the arrow from her shoulder, the energy dissipating before it could do too much damage.

"Damn you! Damn you all to hell!" The demon hissed, summoning more dolls.

"I told you to stop missing!" Inuyasha yelled, cursing like a sailor as he was bombarded by another wave of dolls. He was getting beaten down now, the sheer numbers of the dolls attacking him overwhelming. He swung his sword and his claws, as he jumped and leaped around, trying to act as a decoy so that Kagome could take care of the demon. It sucked that he just couldn't use the Wind Scar to end it, but with some may trapped souls inside the dolls, he couldn't risk killing them too.

"You try hitting her!" Kagome shot back.

"I would but I'm not allowed to kill anyone besides her and I can't do that right this minute!"

"Pay attention!" The doll-demon hissed, miffed that she was being ignored over an argument. "Maybe I just need to get you notice me!" Out of spite, she lifted up her hand and the doll-Watanuki started moving, creaking to her feet. She stepped forward with one foot and then shakily on the other foot, like she was, well…a doll. Several of the other human sized dolls came to life too, stepping down from the huge Hinamatsuri platform and jumping into the fight. Watanuki leapt into the fray as well, against her will, her lips silent and eyes blank. Doumeki nearly screamed in frustration as he ran for his girlfriend before she could tackle Kagome from behind. If the doll-woman was hoping to cause even more trouble than she was right now, she had succeeded. She laughed cruelly as the doll-Watanuki's hands locked with Doumeki's, each pushing against the other and their faces up in each other's business.

"Watanuki!" The archer called, trying to knock some sense into the girl's head. The doll's face didn't move at all, her blank eyes scaring the shit out of the boy. "Watanuki! Listen to me!" The doll's arms were much stronger that Watanuki's real arms and she was winning the wrestling match, pushing Doumeki down into a kneel as he was forced to the floor. But he wasn't giving up that easily and threw her to the side, breaking her stance as she fumbling for her footing. Doumeki was up his feet in a split second and Watanuki's doll face tipped to the side, looking confused or entertained, the archer couldn't tell which. "I know you're in there, Watanuki! Don't let her beat you! You're stronger than that!"

"She can't hear you, little boy." The doll-woman cackled. "There's nothing in her head but the desire to do my bidding."

"You're wrong!"

"I'm not wrong. Even though this collection is by far my favorite, I only picked the most beautiful or the strongest humans to complete it. You'll find that they're much more potent than my other servants." The demon commented off-handedly, pointing to Inuyasha, who was busy fending off one of the ministers that sat on the platform as well as the emperor doll and Kagome was dealing with one of the other sake bearers, loosing arrow after arrow trying to purify the spell on the doll. There were only four dolls from the platform fighting, but it was enough to tip the fight into the doll-woman's favor.

"Watanuki wake up! We're here to get you! So you need to wake up!" Doumeki shouted again as the shell of his girlfriend kicked at him, sweeping him off his feet and back onto the floor. His bow clattered to the floor as she jumped on him, her cold, hard body digging into his gut. They rolled on the floor, each trying to pin down the other, Doumeki still yelling at the seer to try and wake her up. His pleas fell on deaf ears and the doll-demon just laughed at him. That is…she laughed until Inuyasha cracked both of the dolls that he was fighting.

True to his word, he didn't break them or kill them; he just dug his claws into their arms and cracked their skin. But it was enough too piss off the demon and make her lose her concentration on Doumeki's and Watanuki's fight.

"Damn you!" The demon took her eyes off the fight to hiss at Inuyasha and he just smirked right back and started cursing at her. That was her first mistake. It was enough of a distraction for Doumeki to throw the doll-Watanuki off him and pin her onto the floor. He was desperate now in this losing battle, grabbing onto the doll's shoulders and shouting right into her face in a last ditch effort to get Watanuki's attention.

"I promise not to ask for food for a week if you just wake up! Just quit being an ass and wake up! WATANUKI!" Doumeki yelled, a single tear running down his cheek. He couldn't endure the pain of seeing his friend, his classmate, his love like this anymore. She was always so energetic, and this doll in his arms was nothing like that. She wasn't Watanuki when she wasn't yelling at him or grumbling about Yuko or risking her life for her friends like she usually was. She wasn't Watanuki, even though she was right in front of Doumeki and that was breaking his heart. He couldn't fight her like this anymore.

Something of what he said perked the doll's interest (probably the part about not having to cook if the archer had to take a guess) and she stopped fighting him, her head tipping to the side with a creak. She paused for a moment and then head butted Doumeki hard, throwing the boy off her. Doumeki crashed into the wall, holding his head as shooting pain and disorientation clouded his vision. He heard his bow clattering to the ground next to him and opened his eyes to see doll-Watanuki's arm lowering from throwing it at him. She lifted up her hand and flipped him off in true Watanuki style and ran towards the doll-demon. The demon meanwhile, was still focusing on Inuyasha and wasn't paying attention to the doll leaping up to her level. That was her second mistake. When the fact that she was going to get kneed in the back by her newest acquisition distracted her, she left Inuyasha and Kagome alone to incapacitate the last of the display dolls. That was her third mistake. Watanuki's attack was blocked by the demon holding out her mirror and was then thrown into the wall, strings pinning her body. The demon advanced on her, holding up her hand and taking away the struggling doll's ability to move. Watanuki fell limp; the demon's back turned away from enemies.

That was her last mistake.

"Doumeki! Now!" Kagome shouted. Both archers notched another arrow, Kagome's glowing with a bright, purple light and Doumeki's materializing with a golden gleam. They aimed for the demon's mirror and let the arrows fly. They zoomed upwards, purifying the air before slamming into the mirror. The demon screamed, the cracks webbing her face deepening and flaking away all at once. She held up her destroyed hands and growled, clenching her fists and snapping about around to her dolls. She grabbed Watanuki by the neck from where she was strung up and held up the girl's clacking body.

"If I can't have her then no one will!" She howled, throwing the girl down to the floor with all her might.

"No!" Doumeki shouted, dropping his bow and running as fast as he could, panic seizing his heart. He wasn't going to make it before she shattered on the ground. Suddenly, the demon-woman screamed again, Inuyasha having leapt up and slashed her in half with his Tessaiga, a satisfied growl pushing past his fangs his other hand reaching for Watanuki. He had missed. The demon's scream shook the entire mansion and knocked over another one of the life sized dolls, the person tipping over from the bottom platform and becoming a landing pad for Watanuki. Their bodies clashed harshly and Watanuki bounced off the other doll and into Doumeki's arms as he slid under her, the archer's foot shooting out to support the other doll at the same time so it didn't shatter. The heavy clay body of Watanuki knocked the air out of the boy's chest again but he held onto her all the same, cradling her into his torso.

"Got her?!" Kagome shouted. Doumeki tipped his head back and smiled just a little bit. Kagome's face lit up, her heartbeat calming just a little now that her friend wasn't in danger of getting shattered.

"Got her?" She asked Inuyasha next.

"Hell, yeah!" The half demon landed on the floor gracefully and put away his sword with a satisfied smirk, the huge fang condensing into the sheath magically.

The doll-demon screamed in pain one more time as she was torn apart. Mokona's eyes shot open and it smiled. Its huge mouth opened, a tornado forming a vortex as it sucked in the demon, her existence pulled into the creature's gut, her mirror falling to the floor. The glass finally shattered as Mokona shut its mouth and burped its thanks for the meal, leaving the frame of the mirror jagged and broken. The aura vanished as the demon disappeared into Mokona's vortex, the three remaining jewel shards pinging to the floor. Shippo dashed over and scooped them up before anything else could happen to them.

"Thank you for the meal!" Mokona chirped, burping after his snack. Doumeki rolled his eyes.

Just then, something amazing happened. The dolls that were still left on the platform and the ones scattered around the room came to life – in the good way. The clay coverings around their bodies cracked and shattered, leaving the people underneath free of the doll-demon's spell, their bewitched clothes and hair vanishing to leave their real clothes and looks behind. They looked at themselves in awe, smiling and laughing as the free people hugged each other and celebrated their freedom. Once over the initial shock, the freed prisoners thanked Inuyasha's group before running out of the mansion in a rush. Once gone, Kagome noticed that Doumeki was still sitting on the floor, putting Watanuki's glasses on her face.

Kagome ran over to him and knelt by the archer's side. She gasped when she saw that Watanuki was still unconscious, the jewel shard in her neck still shining black. Kagome instantly put her hands up to the girl's neck, sending her pure aura into the jewel to purify it.

"What's wrong?" Inuyasha asked, walking up to the trio.

"She hasn't woken up yet." Kagome replied, purifying the jewel shard.

"She's not the only one." Shippo hopped up and pointed to a few of the doll-people who were still lying around like they were asleep. As they looked, one or two of them woke up slowly and ran out of the mansion screaming when they realized where they were.

"What's wrong with her?" Kagome asked, her brow furrowed as she tried her best to get the jewel shard out of the seer's neck. She figured that once the evil influence of the jewel was gone, the girl would wake up.

"She's probably stuck back there." A voice said behind the group. They all turned to see a middle-aged woman standing in the doorway. "I came to thank you for your assistance in freeing us." She bowed to the group and then had to bow again as Miroku, Sango and Kirara ran in.

"What do you mean by she's suck?" Doumeki asked, holding Watanuki even closer. She was warm again, human, but she was limp in his arms and that worried him even more than being turned into a doll. While she was a doll, he was almost certain that the spell could be broken, but now that she was human again…he wasn't so sure that she was under a spell anymore. This could be permanent.

"I was a doll as well." The lady said, walking into the room and sitting down next to the group. "As a doll, we don't inhabit our bodies. The demon sent us to another place, a kind of dream realm where our minds are kept. That way, she didn't have to worry about us waking up. You're friend is probably still back there." Doumeki turned away from the woman and looked down at Watanuki. It did look like she was sleeping; only that she wasn't waking up. Kagome's purifying power finally

"Give her a little time. I'm sure she'll wake up." The woman stood, thanked them again and then walked out, leaving the group with a broken mirror and an unconscious girl. The next person to walk in was Yuko, carrying Watanuki's bag and still puffing her pipe.

"I see you got her back." The witch noted. "And you have the jewel shards." She nodded to Shippo who was still holding three of the shards.

"All but one." Kagome informed. But just as she was speaking, the jewel shard was completely purified and popped out of Watanuki's neck and into her hands.

"Your wish has been granted." Yuko smiled, satisfied with a job well done. She walked over to the shattered mirror and picked it up, putting it into Watanuki's bag after studying it for a minute. "Our work here is done."

"But Watanuki won't wake up." The priestess argued.

"Watanuki's stubborn, she won't let something like possession stop her. She's dealt with situations like this many times and will have to do it again. Just give her time." Yuko nodded towards the door and Doumeki was the first to move, picking up his girlfriend in his arms, trusting Yuko. He walked over to Inuyasha and surprised him by dumping the girl into his arms.

"Hey! What are you-" The half demon hissed as he held onto the seer. Doumeki turned around and knelt down.

"Put her on my back." He stated, his stone face and voice back. The half demon sniffed in irritation but maneuvered the unconscious girl into a piggy back position. Her arms were draped around the archer's neck and his arms wrapped around her thighs as he shifted her and then stood up.

"Let's go then." Yuko said, leading everyone out of the crumbling mansion and into the forest.

Watanuki was really getting tired of the dreamscape. She didn't have any clue what had happened outside her mind except for that one moment when Doumeki screamed her name really, really loudly and she felt a tug on her body. She only knew now that the oppressive force holding her captive was gone and the hedge maze had disintegrated along with everything else, including the people trapped with her. Sure, there were a few people that hung around for a little while (however long that was) and they just floated around in the space with Watanuki, until they too faded into the white clouds and left her alone. She was drifting alone now, listening to the silence and moving through the clouds of the dreamscape. She was bored. The mirrors were gone so she couldn't even watch her past anymore (even if most of her memories were horrible) and there was nobody to talk to or even just watch. Just a puffy, white horizon that she floated through, bored out of her mind.

"When will this end? I don't want to be here anymore." Watanuki whispered. "Is that doll-woman doing this? Is she taking everyone away so I'm lonely again? Or have the others finally found me? Is Doumeki with them? Would Inuyasha even come to rescue me? Are they going to rescue me at all?" She asked these questions to the emptiness and then shook her head harshly. "Of course they're going to find me! Kagome's a good friend to me now and Yuko wouldn't leave her slave behind. And Doumeki…well, I'd kill that man if he every left me behind!" Watanuki declared. "I'm getting out of here! Just you wait!" She shouted at no one in particular, raising angry fists in the air. Her sudden movements had the girl twisting around and spiraling into the clouds. She kept floating and kept floating as time passed. How much time? She didn't give a fuck. She just wanted it to end.

"Arrrg!" Watanuki kicked out at anything to relieve her boredom, disrupting the clouds with unsatisfied attacks.

Suddenly, a breezed picked up in her dream, swirling the clouds around her. Watanuki listened to the breeze, thankful for something different than the silence. The breeze brushed by her again, bringing with it a voice. An annoying voice, but a familiar one nonetheless. Watanuki listened carefully, the deep tone shifting from a sigh into actual words.

 _Watanuki…Watanuki…Watanuki…Kimihiro…Kimi….Watanuki…Watanuki…Wake up…Oi…Watanuki…Nuki…Oi…Watanuki…_

Watanuki listened to her name being said over and over again and she closed her eyes, feeling a tug on her consciousness and just let it happened to her, the slight breeze becoming a steady roar until it cut off.

"Watanuki. Oi, Watanuki."

"How many times do I have to tell you not to 'oi' me?" She breathed, nuzzling into the warm shoulder that her face rested on. She then realized that she wasn't walking, but that her legs were dangling near someone's knees and that someone was annoying her. She swung her leg out straight and then brought it back in quickly, digging her heel into Doumeki's knees and shin.

"Ow."

"She's awake!" A chipper voice announced.

"Are you sure, Shippo?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah! She kicked Doumeki!"

"She's awake." Inuyasha huffed. Watanuki fully opened her eyes and found herself being carried piggy back by Doumeki through a forest. The rest of her friends were there too, Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippo, Kirara, Sango Miroku, Yuko, Mokona…and that made her happy. They were safe too. But…she was being carried like a child by her boyfriend and while being carried by her boyfriend was great…Watanuki hated being carried like a child.

"Put me down, you bastard!" Watanuki snapped, struggling to get off of the archer's back. She pushed and flailed, trying to steal her legs back when Doumeki tripped, sending them both crashing to the ground. "Ow!"

"Nice going." Doumeki scoffed after he'd landed on Watanuki. She growled at him and pushed him off her. Everyone else just laughed at the pair and kept walking. Doumeki stood up and brushed off his uniform, holding out his hand to his girlfriend. She looked up from rubbing her ass and smacked it away, shakily standing to her feet. "Next time, just let me carry you."

"I'm not a baby! I can walk by myself." Watanuki took one step and almost collapsed again. Doumeki was there to catch her arms, sighing at her foolishness.

"Hands off! I can do it myself." She grumbled.

"Just let me help you." Doumeki insisted, his voice low. Watanuki looked up him and even though his face was the same as ever, his eyes held and odd eagerness to help her. "You've been kidnapped by a demon, transformed into a doll for two days and asleep for three hours after fighting with me in doll form. Just cool your jets and let me carry you. You're legs are shaking." He pointed out nodding towards Watanuki's feet. She looked down and glared at her trembling legs.

"Fine! But I'm still walking! Two days of being a doll sucked and I want to walk!" She stated forcefully. Doumeki rolled his eyes at her, but stepped in close to her, winding one arm around her waist and the other under her armpit, his hand resting on her shoulder.

"I'm glad to see that you're just as grumpy as ever!~" Yuko cooed, smiling brightly.

"I'm glad to see that you're as irritating as ever." Watanuki grumbled, taking a wobbly step down the mountain path. She was leaning heavily on Doumeki despite her insistence to walk on her own and thankfully, the archer didn't say a word and just kept walking with her.

"Ooo! Scary!~" The witch giggled. "You've had quiet the day, Watanuki. We wouldn't judge you if you let Doumeki carry you."

"Not a chance!"

"He's already doing most of the work now." Inuyasha commented, folding his arms and nodding towards the couple.

"S-shut up!" Watanuki shuttered, nearly tripping over her feet again.

"He's got a point." Miroku agreed.

"You shut up too!"

"Watanuki, be nice. They were kind enough to help save you from the demon." Yuko chastised lightly. She knew just how to twist Watanuki's foul mood into a sympathetic guilt. And it worked. Watanuki's head dropped and she mumbled her thanks. Even though it was quiet, Inuyasha's dog ear twitched and caught the whispered words.

"She said thanks." He informed the others.

"That's good enough for me!" Kagome smiled.

"Me too!" Shippo agreed. Sango and Miroku just smiled, knowing that Watanuki was acting just like Inuyasha, stubborn to a fault, but still grateful for the help. If they pushed her too far, she'd just snap right back into her irritated mood, so they didn't say anything. However, Kirara had the opposite in mind as she mewed happily, trotting back to Watanuki and rubbing herself on the girl's leg in thanks for her thanks.

"The demon?" Watanuki asked, wondering what the hell had happened while she was out. She and Doumeki hobbled back into the group as Yuko talked.

"She was a cracked mirror, thrown away and unwanted." Yuko started explaining. "But, she lived on and became a tsukumogami – an object that's given a soul after living for one hundred years. Her resentment for being abandoned and her hatred towards humans was enhanced when the Sacred Jewel shards came into her possession." Yuko deduced, puffing her damn pipe. Watanuki stumbled as they walked down the mountain, her legs still numb from her transformation. Doumeki's arm was around her waist, the other one wrapped around her shoulder. Her feet felt like lead, her head was stuffed with cotton and she still couldn't move her fingers. Great.

"Well, that's sad but kidnapping people is still wrong." Kagome commented.

"And turning them into dolls is worse." Watanuki complained.

"I wish you'd stayed a doll. A lot quieter that way." Inuyasha huffed, folding his arms. Watanuki growled at him, kicked out at his shin and connecting hard. "Ow!" He grabbed his aching leg and Kagome took this moment to add insult to injury.

"Inuyasha: sit" The half demon hit the ground hard, thrown off his balance by Watanuki and he groaned in pain. "Be nice." The priestess chastised.

"Did you have to do that?" He whimpered, picking himself up from the crater he'd bashed into the ground. Kagome just sighed and shook her head. Nobody really felt any pity for him.

"If not for Watanuki, we would've walked right passed those jewel shards." Sango commented.

"We probably would've found them eventually." Inuyasha grumbled, wiping off his kimono.

"Yeah, but this way we found them faster." Miruko argued.

"Yuko granted our wish, that's all that matters." Kagome said cheerfully. "And we got to meet Doumeki and Watanuki!"

"Don't forget Mokona!~" The fur ball piped.

"And of course, Mokona too." The priestess amended.

"You're gonna wish you hadn't met Mokona. The little demon's more trouble than it's worth." Watanuki grumbled.

"Hey!" Mokona jumped off of Yuko's shoulder and glommed onto Watanuki's face. The girl shook her head, trying to get the fur ball off of her so she could breath. "Whoa!~ Whoa!~ Whoooaaa!~" Mokona giggled until it let go and hopped onto Doumeki's head. The group laughed again as Watanuki threatened to baste Mokona for dinner and continued walking down the mountain.

By the time they reached the village at the base of the mountain, Watanuki could walk on her own and only held Doumeki's hand out of closeness and the impeding feeling that she was going to trip. The group walked into the village and into a celebration as the loved ones of the village rejoined their families and the ones taken from other places stayed the night before they left to go back to their homes. The villagers were very accommodating to Watanuki and her friends for saving the missing people, and they spent the night partying, Sango glued to Miroku's side so he didn't propose to any of the beautiful women present, Inuyasha and Kagome resting and eating, Mokona and Shippo playing among the crowd of celebrating villagers, Yuko puffing her pipe on a porch and Doumeki eating to his heart's content. Watanuki on the other hand, was forced to cook food for a few hours so Yuko would shut up and then fell asleep in someone's house on their futon, completely worn out from her adventures. Doumeki joined her later, lying down next to the sleeping seer and taking her glasses off her face so she didn't smush them. He wove his hand into hers and brushed a few stray hairs off her face. She was warm, she was alive and she was grumbling about Yuko in her sleep. She was Watanuki again.

"Welcome back." Doumeki whispered, kissing her lips softly so he didn't wake her up. He spent a little time in silence before Shippo and Kagome wandered in, borrowing a futon to sleep on and burrowing into the blanket. Inuyasha was next, plopping down against the wall with his sword and going to sleep. The owners of the house stumbled in next, completely drunk and passed out next to their guests, not even raising a protest to people sleeping in their home. Sango and Kirara came in next, dragging Miroku in by his collar at an ungodly hour of the morning and Doumeki had to shush them so they didn't wake everyone else up. Last to come in was Yuko, Mokona on her shoulder once again as she sat on the porch and watched the last of the villagers and her charges drift off to sleep.

In the morning, Watanuki was up before everyone else and dug around her bag for stuff to make tea. The rest of the group was woken by the smell of green tea and a warm fire. They spent the morning nursing hangovers and after party aches, apologizing to the villager's whose house they had crashed in and then rested until the sun was high in the sky, laughing and just enjoying the peace of the day. When mid-morning approached, Yuko stood up and stretched while putting her pipe away and hummed happily.

"Looks like our stop will be here soon." Yuko smiled, throwing Watanuki her bag so the girl could carry it now.

"Are you sure?" The seer asked, catching and shouldering the backpack. "We kind of got here by accident because _you_ did something with your magic circle, so how can you be sure we're going back now?"

"I just know." Was the reply.

"I hate you." She stated. Doumeki grabbed his bow and walked out the door, complete trusting Yuko. He grabbed Watanuki by the collar and yanked her outside and onto the road.

"You're leaving now?" Kagome asked, following her four new friends.

"I _guess_ so." Watanuki hissed, letting Doumeki drag her.

"Thank goodness." Inuyasha huffed, jumping out onto the road with Sango and Miroku following behind. Shippo chased the little Kirara out with the group, laughing and playing with the demon kitten.

"I hope you choke!" Watanuki snapped back at the grumpy half demon.

"Hope you have a safe journey." Miroku said.

"Yes, don't get into anymore trouble." Sango added.

"With Watanuki around, there's always trouble!~" Yuko sang.

"Shut up you!" Watanuki yelled at her boss.

"We hope you have safe journeys as well." Doumeki said.

"Yeah, I hope you find the rest of your jewel thing." Watanuki wished.

"Thanks!" Kagome smiled. "I'll miss you Watanuki!"

"Me too. Maybe we'll meet again." Watanuki smiled back.

"Only if fate deems it inevitable." Yuko threw over her shoulder.

"Can't I hope?" Watanuki said pointedly.

"Sure."

"Well, then why did you say tha-" Just as Watanuki was about finish her sentence, she was cut off, a bright light split the ground and the four interlopers fell through another crack in the universe with Watanuki screaming and then closed up again, leaving Inuyasha's group stunned.

"Somehow, I think the universe always has the last word with Watanuki." Miroku commented. They all burst into laughter and kept walking along the road on their journey, the day just getting started.

A/N: And there's the first chapter! Hope you enjoyed it. :3

Note: Hinamatsuri is the holiday celebrated on March 3rd (Doumeki's birthday), also known as Girl's Day or Doll's Day, and is where the Japanese set up doll displays and pray and celebrate the good health of girls. A full display is set up like stairs with the Emperor and Empress on the top platform, then the three women court ladies/sake bearers (Watanuki's position) next, five male musicians next down, two ministers next and then three helpers/protectors/samurai on the bottom. Other lower platforms can display carriages, equipment and furniture.

P.S. If anyone has any other demon/spirit/supernatural anime or manga they'd like me to include (excluding Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Natsume's Book of Friends and Kamisama Kiss because I'm already doing those ones as well) let me know by PM or review and I'll check them out! :3


	2. Yakuza, Yokai and Yukos

A/N: ZareEraz here! Presenting the second chapter of Mokona's Magical Merry-Go-Round! This time its in the universe of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan and I'm sorry if you haven't seen it but check it out anyway because it's a good show. And with that...onto the reading!

Yakuza, Yokai and Yukos

They fell again, through the vortex of color that existed between worlds, the same (but different, obviously) streams of energy curling around their path as they floated along. Watanuki could actually appreciate the beauty this time – the deep blue of void space, their path ringing by bright lights and ribbons of energy twisting through space-time – resting leisurely and letting Mokona bounce off of her and her companions as it entertained itself.

"This is pretty cool, huh?" Watanuki asked her boyfriend. Doumeki was floating on his back, his hands hooked behind his head.

"Hmm." He replied

"'Hmm' is not a legitimate response. I asked you a question, now answer it." Watanuki grumped.

"It's cool."

"Thank _you_." The seer huffed.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" Yuko asked. Speaking of panties…Doumeki was floating lower and behind Watanuki trying to look up her skirt. Watanuki caught him in the act and clamped her legs shut and in retaliation, spun around and shoved him away from her.

"Pervert!"

"Don't push him too far, he might get lost and we'd hate that, wouldn't we?~" Yuko teased.

"I just want to go home, Yuko." Watanuki replied, answering the witch's previous question.

"You're such a homebody, Watanuki!" Yuko went on, bopping Mokona towards the girl.

"No, I just don't want to get attacked by any other freaky demons. I have a hard enough time dealing with the normal spirits."

"You're going to jinx yourself, Watanuki." Yuko teased, floating over to the girl and poking her cheek.

"Lay off!" The girl snapped. Just then, a bright light emanated in front of the group, growing bigger and brighter with each passing second.

"I think this is our stop." Yuko informed the others.

"Fantastic! Home here we come!" Watanuki cheered.

"No! More fun!~" Mokona cheered in opposition.

"Shut up you fur ball! I don't want any more adventures!" Watanuki protested.

"Well, Mokona does!" The puff ball and the seer continued into their argument as the group was wrapped up in a sphere of energy and exited the time-space pathway.

They fell out of the world between worlds and descended through the light until the dimensional bubble popped and disappeared. In a cruel twist of fate, Yuko, Doumeki and Mokona all landed on solid ground. Watanuki on the other hand, fell right into a pond. She broke the water and got drenched as she sunk to the bottom of the pond, knocking her head on a rock in the process, warm blood running down her cheek and mixing with the water. She tried to cry out in pain as she opened her mouth, but only bubbles escaped. Her head swam as she floated around in blurry pain. She opened her eyes blearily and saw a boy swimming towards her; only he was wearing a full ninja outfit and had a broken, shell sitting on top of his head. He fluidly swam over to her, seeming not to need air, his slit eyes watching her carefully and reached out his hands to her. His webbed hands. _A demon?! Yokai?! Not again!_ Watanuki scrambled back as best she could with only half her vision and a throbbing head and hit the side of the pond. The boy kept coming closer, his hands still out stretched. He reached the flailing girl and put his hands gently on her torso, wrapping his arms around and pulling her up despite her best efforts to get away from him.

Watanuki burst out of the water and screamed, her first breath of air an ear-splitting shriek that nearly shattered all the glass in the area.

"What the hell was that?!" Someone shouted, running towards the pond. Watanuki's vision was blurry as her head wound bled onto her face, covering her eyes. She screamed again and shoved against the hands that deposited her onto the banks, crawling away on hands and knees.

"Watanuki! Watanuki! Calm down!" That was Yuko's voice, faintly filtering into her brain, her head throbbing too loudly to pick up her voice much. There was a commotion and shouting that wasn't the seer's, but it all swirled together in a continuous roar. Watanuki's hand got caught on something and in her haste, she tripped over herself and collapsed on the ground. She couldn't see, couldn't orient herself and nothing made sense. She was having a mini panic attack when a familiar voice called out to her.

"Watanuki. Watanuki." A warm hand clasped her own, a strong arm bundling her into a solid chest.

"Doumeki?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah. It's okay. Everything's fine." He soothed, stroking her hair and then wiping her eyes, trying to clean up some of the blood. She'd lost her glasses somewhere, but when she opened her eyes, Doumeki was close enough that she could see him clearly.

"You sure?" She asked, still startled by the water-boy she'd seen in the pond.

"Yeah. Everything's okay. You just over-reacted." Watanuki scoffed.

"You didn't get dumped into a pond and attacked by a fish-boy." She grumbled moodily, blinking the spots out of her eyes.

"True, but you didn't have to scream so loud." He replied, shifting her close to him. "I think you broke someone's ear drums." Doumeki's hand was on her hair now, tendering searching for the wound on her head. She flinched when he found it (above her ear and towards the back of her head) and then gasped as he plastered his hand over it, stemming the blood flow.

"Ow!" She grimaced.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"S'okay." She mumbled.

"Okay, who screamed loud enough to unravel my string?" A sharp voice ordered.

"Kubinashi, be nice!" A soft, feminine voice snapped back.

"Yeah, Kubinashi. She had quite the scare." That voice was the voice of a seductress, smooth and low.

"She'll be fine in a minute!~" That one was Yuko, conversing with these people like they were already acquainted. "Right, Watanuki?"

"Shut up." Watanuki hissed, wiping her own eyes when some more blood

"Is that the way you speak to your employer?"

"It is when she's speaking for me instead of asking me how I'm doing!" Watanuki had lost her bag and started looking around for it, knowing she had a clean handkerchief in it somewhere to soak up her blood so Doumeki didn't have to keep plugging up her wound.

"Here." A soft voice said, holding out a clean cloth to the girl.

"Thanks." She said, moving Doumeki's hand and replacing it with the handkerchief. She looked at the person who'd offered the cloth. He was a short boy with glasses and huge brown eyes. His hair was brown on top and black underneath and he was wearing a huge smile as he stood up and shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets.

"You sure surprised us!" The boy laughed.

"You surprised me." Watanuki replied, and looked up at the "us." She was surrounded by people of all different sized and appearances. They all looked human at first, normal facial features and clothing, but then when Watanuki blinked, they're appearance would shift. For example, the huge guy with darker skin wearing a boy's school uniform kept blinking in between that form and the guy with the dark kimono, a skull necklace and pointy white hair. There was a girl whose bright blue eyes kept turning yellow, her two toned hair swirling about her girl's uniform or her white kimono, depending on when Watanuki blinked. That was just a few, but everyone in the courtyard was doing to same thing, fluctuating between human and spirit form. Watanuki only had two questions at this point (because it was clear that this was a yokai house) and her big mouth just blabbed them out.

"What is this place and are those skulls around your neck real?" She asked, pointing to the huge man.

"Huh?" The large man asked. "How did you-? I'm in my human form!"

"Aotabou!" The small, white kimono-girl hissed. "Be quiet!"

"It's useless." Yuko stated, pulling out her pipe and lighting it for a smoke. She inhaled and puffed out a cloud as a multitude of eyes watched her, waiting for an explanation. "Watanuki can see right through your illusions. She knows you're yokai."

"What?!" There was a collective gasp and Watanuki just rolled her eyes.

"Well then, how do you know?" The small, brown-haired boy asked.

"I just do." Yuko said vaguely. The glasses-boy opened his mouth to ask another question when Watanuki cut him off.

"Forget her, she hardly ever makes sense." Watanuki huffed. She'd bled through the handkerchief and surprisingly enough, another own was held out to her, this time by the white kimono-girl.

"Then I guess it's stupid for us to keep hiding ourselves." She smiled brightly and her form stabilized into the white kimono girl with a long, flowing scarf. Her bright blue eyes phased into a golden yellow with dark circles in them, hypnotic even as she smiled. "I'm a yuki onna but you can call me Tsurara!"

"I'm Watanuki." The seer thanked the yuki onna and took the cold handkerchief and switched it out with the blood soaked one.

"You smell really good, you know that?" Tsurara knelt down to held Watanuki dab at her wound.

"So I've been told." Watanuki sighed.

"I think you smell good." Doumeki added.

"I don't need to hear that from you!" As Watanuki snapped at Doumeki, the rest of the yokai that were hanging around the courtyard transformed back into their regular yokai forms.

"How sad!" One of the human-looking yokai declared. He was handsome, wearing monk's robes and pyramid shaped hat, his black hair framing his face. He clanked his staff on the ground, a dissatisfied look on his face.

"What's sad, Kurotabo?" Tsurara asked.

"That my beautiful human guise was seen through so easily!" The monk-man walked closer, kneeling and taking Watanuki's free hand in his own. "But to be seen through by this beautiful woman is enough to make me-"

"Shut up, pervet." Watanuki said, her voice flat. She was not going to even entertain the idea of a yokai falling in love or trying to flirt with her. She already had a boyfriend, and he was human and he was enough trouble as it is. Kurotabo's face fell and the huge monk with the skulls picked him up and walked away with him like a lawn chair. The glasses-boy let a sweat drop slide down his face, an awkward grimace-smile on his face.

"Sorry about that! Just ignore him." The boy asked.

"Already did." Watanuki replied. Kurotabo gasped in pain from the rejection.

"I'm Rikuo Nura by the way, and this is my house." The boy smiled brightly. Watanuki blinked and his form shifted too, just not as dramatically. It was blurry, but she could see his hair extend out the back of his head, the top half white and the bottom half black. He had red eyes and he face was angular, not at all like his human form and the demon form was smirking and not smiling.

"Kimihiro Watanuki." She introduced herself. "You're a yokai too?" Watanuki asked.

"Y-yeah. Quarter yokai actually…" Rikuo seemed unsettled that Watanuki could see even his form but before an awkward silence could ensue, a bright cheerful woman who was definitely human walked into the courtyard.

"Rikuo! What's going on out here? Everything got really quiet!" The woman looked like Rikuo, the same brown hair and round face structure and dark eyes. She smiled brightly at all the yokai around her and then gasped when she saw Watanuki, soaked and bleeding in Doumeki's arms. "What happened?!" She gasped, running towards the pond to check on the girl.

"You might not believe this, but we're not from this world." Yuko stated cryptically, puffing her pipe.

"What?" The cheerful woman asked.

"Mom, they fell out of the sky." Rikuo explained. "She fell in the pond and hit her head. She can _see_ everyone."

"Oh my! How strange!" Rikuo's mom said, surprised by her visitors. "But that must sound strange coming from the woman who runs a household full of yokai!" She laughed happily and started picking Watanuki up with help from Doumeki. "You're soaked! Let's get you inside to a warm bath and get your head looked at!"

"If you wouldn't mind, could we all use your bath?" Yuko asked. "We've just come from an unhygienic place and had to deal with a nasty demon there, so we're not in the best shape."

"Sure! And you can stay for dinner too if you like!"

"Oh yay!" Yuko clapped her hands together in delight. "Watanuki's a fabulous cook so she can help!"

"Yuko!" The girl snapped, very upset that she was being rented out again, and with a head injury no less!"

"Oh, suck it up, Watanuki!" Yuko tsked. "If we're going to be imposing we're going to help out!" Yuko applied her policy of equivalence and balance exchange to the situation.

"The only helping out you're going to do if helping out eating all the food!"

"That' right!~" The witch winked.

"Mokona too!~" The fur ball finally spoke, surprising everyone when it jumped up and down on Yuko's shoulder.

"It's so cute!" Tsurara gasped, running towards the full ball and staring at the creature with huge eyes.

"It's a nuisance." Watanuki grumbled, but her complaint went unheard as Rikuo's mom and Doumeki dragged her inside the old-style Japanese mansion and to the bath. When they reached the baths, Watanuki found herself without privacy as the small yokai followed her into the changing room, but then Yuko walked in and shooed them all out, her presence scaring the crap out of them. Rikuo's mother introduced herself as Wakana Nura and then cheerfully stripped both of her female guests and spirited their clothes away to wash them.

"I'm sorry if they startled you." She said on her way out. "But they're all good people even if they look scary!" Before Watanuki could answer, Yuko was pushing her naked ass into the bath and sat her down on a short stool to shower off the girl, careful of her open wound and started cleaning herself as well.

"At least this world has indoor plumbing!~" Yuko sighed, washing her long black hair. Watanuki had seen Yuko naked plenty of times, but she'd never actually taken a bath with the witch and it was uncomfortable to look at her small breasts and then take a peek at Yuko's well endowed chest. It was downright depressing to realize that she looked like a five year old in comparison! "As much fun as we had in the last world, bathing in a river was not the most enjoyable experience!"

"I wouldn't know. I was too busy being a doll." Watanuki replied, lathering soap over her skin, curled into herself so Yuko didn't see her chest and insecurity. She didn't do a very good job and the witch rolled her eyes.

"Watanuki, I already know you have barely any boobs." The girl blushed at the statement, her face going beet red. "Anyway, as beautiful as Feudal Japan was, I wouldn't want to live without plumbing. Alright! Time to rinse!" The witch grabbed the removable shower head and doused herself in water, getting rid of all her soap bubbles and then did Watanuki, careful not to spray the girl's cut. It was still bleeding a little and so the water around Watanuki turned pink as the blood ran into the drain along with the soap. "Into the tub!" Yuko grabbed her slave and dragged her into the hot bath, both of them sighing in delight as the warm water soothed their aches.

Watanuki was still stiff from her last adventure and cold from her dip in the pond and so she sunk into the hot water until everything but her nose and eyes remained above water. Yuko lounged in the tub on the other side, her long leg's tangling with Watanuki's. The seer was content until something swam passed her thigh and ass.

"Wah!" She yelped as something caressed her skin, flailing around the splashing water over the side of the tub. Mokona surfaced in the bath, holding a small fish yokai in its mitts. It gave Watanuki a look that said "cook this" and she growled at the fur ball. "You can't eat that!"

"Aw! Come on!"

"No!"

"Here!" Tsurara and another woman came in, the yuki onna holding out a fish bowl. Mokona sighed and tossed the fish yokai into the water and then pouted, folding its arms moodily. Tsurara giggled and left the room with the fish. The other woman came in, dressed in a white kimono with flower patterns on it and holding a first aid kit. She was gorgeous. The woman had long brown hair that fell over one of her eyes and was pulled into a long pony tail, her one visible eye a deep brown. She had huge boobs too, just like Yuko!

"I'm Kejoro." She smiled smoothly. "Please sit up. I shall dress your wound." Watanuki pushed her butt against the side of the tub and rose out of the water. Kejoro dried off her hair gently with a towel and then applied some antiseptic that made Watanuki wince. "Sorry."

"It's okay." The girl replied. The woman then wrapped a bandage around the girl's forehead to keep the compress for swelling secured.

"Is that alright? It's not too tight or too loose?" Kejoro asked after she was done. Watanuki moved her head a bit to feel the bandage on her head.

"Nope. It's good." The girl replied with a smile.

"Good." Kejoro packed up the first aid kit and stood to leave. "Please, take your time. We'll be having dinner in an hour. Fresh clothes have been put in the changing room for you."

"Thank you." Yuko replied, crossing her legs sensually. Everything was blurry without her glasses, but Watanuki could still envy Yuko's breasts from this distance.

"Watanuki, stop staring. You'll give yourself an ulcer." The witch teased, leaning forward to showcase her chest.

"Sh-shut up!" Watanuki folded her arms in a huff, looking away from her boss.

"Don't worry! You'll get breasts when you're older!~ And if you don't, I'm pretty sure that Doumeki likes your small chest just the way it is!~" The witch smiled devilishly.

"I said 'shut up!'" Yuko laughed and Mokona cackled, causing Watanuki to try and strangled the black blob of fur. Eventually, they climbed out of the bath to dry off (once Watanuki bonked her head trying to catch Mokona first, adding a goose egg to her ever growing list of injuries) and then donned their borrowed clothes. Yuko, fittingly enough, was dressed in a deep red and purple kimono with a butterfly and garden theme and Watanuki's was pink with camellia blossoms.

"Aw! You're adorable!~" Yuko cooed, twirling in her robes and clapping her hands together.

"Shut up!" Watanuki blushed again, twisting her hands into her kimono.

"Come on! I'm hungry!" Yuko grabbed the girl's hand again and yanked her down the hallway, the seer slipping in her socks. Mokona hopped behind them, teasing Watanuki all the way.

"You're always hungry!" Watanuki shot back.

"But this time I'm _really_ hungry!"

"You're always _really_ hungry!" As they went down the hallway, the two women and the fur ball ran into Doumeki, who was talking to a short old guy with a head that looked like a cocoon extending out behind him. Doumeki was dressed in a green and brown kimono with square patterns, his hair freshly washed.

"Ah, hello there." The short man greeted the new arrivals. "I was just talking to Doumeki here about getting you. I'm Nurarihyon, Rikuo's grandfather."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Yuko Ichihara." The witch introduced herself.

"Kimihiro Watanuki." The seer added.

"Now that we've got that out of the way…let's eat! I'm hungry!" Nurarihyon smiled, his wrinkles bunching up and Watanuki groan as Yuko shoved her towards the kitchen while she, Doumeki and the old man went into the dining room.

It was pure chaos. Kejoro, Tsurara, Wakana and a hoard of little demons were all cooking in the kitchen when Watanuki was shoved in there. She was immediately given a spot at a stove and plenty to cook, and they let her have at it. After getting used to all the little yokai running around her feet and the fact that most of Tsurara's food was frozen, Watanuki settled in, occasionally asking for ingredients and cookware when she didn't know where it was. She cooked up a storm: frying meat, steaming vegetables, hand dipping shrimp, rolling sushi and whatever else was given to her. Kejoro and Tsurara went with Wakana to deliver the food as it was finished, holding a multitude red, traditional trays with all the dishes. In the dining room, Yuko was busying giving Nurarihyon, Karasu Tengu and his children, Kurotabo, Aotabo, and Hitotsume a run for their sake, out drinking everyone in the room without throwing up. Doumeki, unfortunately, was in a little clear space of his own (due to his pure aura) but all the yokai in the room were nice to him from a distance and kept passing him food and would shout out his requests for dishes to Watanuki in chorus, to which she'd replied with the snarkiest, foul tempered shouts to stick his requests up his ass. Doumeki just kept requesting, pulling them out of his ass. Watanuki finally had to retaliate by throwing a chopstick at him and storming out of the room when she'd helped Kejoro bring in more sake.

"See? I told you she's fine!~" Yuko poked Rikuo, downing another glass of sake. "She's back to her old self and man is it annoying!~"

"I heard that, you witch!" Watanuki yelled, coming back with another load of food. The small yokai swarmed around her, clambering for the food she'd prepared and then passing it around cheerfully and the girl fell over from them climbing on her.

"So clumsy!~" Yuko teased, a drunk blush on her face.

"I hope your drunken ass gets trampled!"

"Now, Watanuki. That's not very nice!~" The witch pouted. "You should be more lady-like! Or else Doumeki might lose interest!"

"Ee's oo gud of a cuk oo 'eave oh." Doumeki said with food in his mouth.

"Swallow before speaking!" Watanuki's teeth sharpened as she karate chopped Doumeki on the head. Domeki plugged his ears as she ranted at him and the entire room laughed at them. Watanuki blushed in embarrassment and frustration and stormed out of the room.

"She's a handful isn't she?" Rikuo asked, calming eating his own food in the chaos that was his household.

"Yes! But she's got her good qualities too!~" Yuko replied, stealing Hitotsume's sake, confusing the one-eyed giant as to where his bottle went. By the time he found it, the bottle was empty. "She's a hard worker, kind and stubborn to a fault and she's and excellent cook! But she's annoying, has a short fuse and i generally grumpy about everything! Watanuki!~ Sake!~"

"Go play in traffic, Yuko!" The seer threw another bottle of sake at the witch from across the room, and Yuko caught it effortlessly.

By the end of the night, Watanuki had hardly eaten anything, her head was throbbing, there wasn't any food or alcohol in the mansion at all and everyone was passed out in their beds, the air filled with sake breath. The only ones who weren't drunk were Watanuki, Wakana, Kejoro, Tsurara, and Rikuo, who all had to clean up after everyone else. By the time Watanuki made it to her borrowed bed, flopping down in between Tsurara and Natto Kozo and Karasu Tengu's daughter Sasami, Watanuki had a head ache, she was pretty sure her bandages were soaked, but she was too tired to care.

"Damn, that Yuko!" She whispered. "Making me cook for everyone when I can hardly see straight." Watanuki took off her glasses and tucked them in her kimono, scared that they'd be crushed on the floor otherwise. She threw her blanket over herself and tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately, someone's foot plopped on her face. She growled and shoved it off her cheek, tipping her head back to see who the perpetrator was. It was Kappa, the yokai who'd saved her so Watanuki just turned over and didn't make a big deal out of it. However, she did hiss at the next person who rolled over her feet. That one was Doumeki and Watanuki kicked him off her in retaliation. By the time she fell asleep it was two in the morning, and she'd had to move out into the hallway so she didn't get kicked anymore. And that's where Rikuo found her in the morning.

"Uh, Watanuki?" The boy whispered in the early morning hours. The sun was up but most of the household was still snoring. Rikuo poked Watanuki's cheek, trying to ignore the fact that the girl's kimono had slipped off her shoulder and her chest was exposed. He pulled the sleeve back up and poked the girl again. "Watanuki?" She groaned, cracking her bronze eye open to glare death at whoever woke her. "You know you're in the hallway, right?"

"'Es." She grumbled into her pillow. "Eople 'ept 'icking mee."

"Ah." The boy replied, understanding. Watanuki looked at the boy's black uniform and backpack, obviously getting ready to go to school.

"Going to school?" She asked, picking her head up and trying to fix her hair.

"Yeah, mom's just making my lunch for me and she has breakfast ready for those who are awake. Doumeki's in the kitchen eating."

"Of course he is." The seer rolled her eyes and let her face fall back into her pillow. And then something dawned on her. Rikuo was going to school, which meant that the one of few normal people in this house was going to leave her here with a bunch of crazy demons. Her eyes shot open, wide awake. "Can I go to school with you?!" She asked desperately.

"Uh…" Rikuo was taken aback. "Why?"

"Because I can't deal with this place!" Watanuki was up and folding away her futon and blanket into a neat pile in the hallway, pushing on her glasses in the process.

"Uh…well…" The boy yokai didn't know how to answer.

"Just let her go. She'll be trouble all day long if you don't." Yuko's head popped out from one of the bedrooms, her hair falling into her face. And then she retreated, falling back on her futon and going to sleep again.

"Okay then." Rikuo nodded. "I'll see if Tsurara has an extra uniform for you."

"She goes to school too?" Watanuki asked.

"Yes. Her and Aotabo. They're my bodyguards."

"Bodyguards?"

"Yeah, I'm kinda the heir to this household. The Nura clan is the leader of many yokai clans around Japan so I'm kina really important." Rikuo put his hand behind his head in embarrassment and smiled softly.

"So…you're like a yakuza household?" Watanuki asked.

"Sort of."

"Whatever. Not the weirdest thing I've ever heard." Watanuki stood up and made her way to the kitchen. I'll see you in a minute!"

Wakana had breakfast ready for Watanuki when she walked in and the girl gratefully ate, ragging on Doumeki for being a pig in the process. Tsurara came in later and gave Watanuki a spare school uniform to wear and Doumeki went to find his own because it was nearly the same as Rikuo's. Watanuki went into an empty room to change, putting on the blue sailor's skirt, white button up that looked like Kagome's uniform (only in blue and not green)and tan sleeveless sweater. Then she realized that her long legs made the skirt look like a mini, but there wasn't anything she could do about that. Watanuki bandaged her head with a small patch, hiding it as best she could in her hair and pulling her raven locks into her customary high pony tail. She then quickly went to help Wakana pack the five lunches they'd need today and (begrudgingly)whipped up some tamagoyaki, per Doumeki's request. And then the five of them were out the door – Rikuo, Tsurara, Aotabo, Doumeki and Watanuki all walking to school together (both yokai in their human disguises).

It was on this walk that Watanuki found out that they had ended up in Ukoyoe Town, a district in Tokyo that wasn't _her_ Tokyo. This was where the Nura clan's headquarters was, and Watanuki had fallen into the headquarters' pond and everyone else in the group had a good laugh about the situation when it was brought up again. Watanuki just pouted and stomped ahead of them so she didn't have to hear their snickering. She ended up watching the people around her. They were just like the people in her Tokyo, leading their own lives and bustling higgledy-piggledy in the streets and in their cars, going to work, going to school, shopping or heading to hang outs with friends. It was the same atmosphere as the seer's home, only it was worlds apart.

And then, when Watanuki wasn't paying attention, Doumeki grabbed her by the collar and yanked the protesting girl backwards and around the corner she had missed. The seer gave the archer a piece of her mind about not dragging people by their collars and just calling to them to get them to turn around. Of course, in the event of her outburst, Rikuo and his yokai friends just watched – embarrassed – as the raven flailed and wriggled around as she screamed, the person she was screaming at just plugging his ears. People skirted around the little group in apprehension until Watanuki stopped screaming and moodily walked next to Doumeki. Rikuo just laughed nervously and kept walking with Tsurara and Aotabo, the three of them wondering just how much trouble the pair of dimension travelers were going to be. They arrived at Ukiyoe Middle School ten minutes later and it was at this point that Watanuki realized just out of place she was.

There were tons of junior high students milling around the courtyard, all talking with their friends and giving Watanuki weird looks. Doumeki was in the same boat as Aotabo. He was just a really tall, mature looking ninth grader (even if he was two years older than everyone else). If he kept up his strong, silent type persona, he could pass as a growth spurt-plagued 3rd year. Watanuki on the other hand was half a foot taller than most of the girls, she carried herself like an adult (most of the time) and despite her apparent lack of boobs (that some of these thirteen year olds possessed in abundance for some godforsaken reason) she look like she belonged in high school (which she did). It was uncomfortable to be the center of attention as other students milled about around the four students (Tsurara had disappeared at some point) and Watanuki wriggled in her mini skirt. Rikuo didn't know what to do either and just waved and greeted the people who passed them and introduced Watanuki and Doumeki as his cousins to the few people who asked who the new kids were. A few of Rikuo's friends game up and introduced themselves to the "cousins." The annoying loud one that reminded Doumeki of Watanuki was Kiyotsugu, the student body president and clearly yokai-obsessed boy Rikuo hung out with. The boy had wavey dark hair and an angular face with narrow eyes. He was trailed by a blond boy named Shima, who seemed to go along with everything Kiyotsugu said most of the time and had a huge smile. A pair of girls wandered up next, a blonde with boobs Watanuki envied named Saori Maki and the dark haired girl next to her was Natsumi Torii. The four friends talked to Rikuo for a few minutes, studying the pretty girl cousin and the handsome boy cousin with much interest.

"Nura! You should have them come to our Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol meeting at lunch today!" Loudmouth Kiyotsugu suggested very loudly, striking dramatic poses in the process.

"You sure?" Rikuo asked.

"Of course!"

"What's this Kiyojuji Paranormal thingy?" Watanuki asked.

"It's a squad of our friends that learn about and hunt for yokai! Its lots of fun!" Kiyotsugu explained excitedly.

"So he says," Another girl interrupted as she joined the group. This girl was very pretty with huge brown eyes and long brown hair. "Mostly we just get into trouble, I'd say."

"Ienaga! That's not very nice!" Kiyotsugu protested.

"Hi Kanna!" Rikuo greeted his friend brightly.

"Rikuo, who are these people?"

"These are Nura's cousins!" Kiyotsugu interjected before Rikuo could explain. "Their names are Watanuki and Doumeki!"

"It's nice to meet you, Ienaga." Watanuki said, bowing to the girl. Watanuki grabbed Doumeki's hand and yanked him into a bow with her so he didn't seem so rude. Kana bowed back.

"And you as well. Call me Kana."

"These cousins of yours have very good manners." Another black-haired girl walked up, her dark eyes trained on Watanuki. "I'm Yura Keikain."

"Nice to meet you. You can call me Watanuki, and this oaf here is Doumeki." The seer said, bowing and pulling Doumeki down with here again.

"Yura Keikain is our resident onmyoji and exorcist in the Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol and now that we've all met, you have to attend our meeting at lunch today!" Kiyotsugu crowed, laughing loudly.

"Sure, whatever." Watanuki replied. They were sticking around the school today, even if she and Doumeki wouldn't be attending classes. It was better to hang around Rikuo's weird friends than to hang around the rabble of yokai at his house. The first bell rang as the group was talking and so everyone except Rikuo, Watanuki and Doumeki went inside for their classes. The three were at a loss at what to do. Watanuki and Doumeki couldn't possibly fit into Rikuo's classes or even the 3rd years classes, but they'd get in trouble for trespassing on school property.

And then Tsurara popped up again, her deep blue eyes sparkling with mischief as she proudly held out two visitor passes to Watanuki and Doumeki.

"How did you get those?!" Rikuo asked, his glasses nearly falling off his face in surprise.

"I tricked an office aid." The yuki onna smiled and stuck her tongue out.

"Tsurara…" Rikuo sighed, shaking his head at her behavior.

"Whatever." Doumeki said, grabbing the passes and Watanuki's collar and dragging the girl into the building before they really got caught.

"We'll see you at lunch Rikuo!" Watanuki called as Doumeki dragged her inside. "Let go of me you asshole!" She yelled at her boyfriend as they walked into the building and the archer found the first set of stairs to climb. With their departure, Rikuo and Tsurara just looked at each other and shrugged, following the "cousins" inside and to their separate classes.

Doumeki took Watanuki to the roof and they hung out up there until lunchtime. Watanuki passed the hours by lying down and watching the clouds float by and making out shapes. Doumeki took a nap. Well…he took a nap after he snuck a few peeks at Watanuki's underwear when the breeze blew up her already short skirt. And then Watanuki ranted his ears off when she caught him and then he took a nap. After several bells chimed, lunch arrived and with it, the annoying Kiyotsugu and all of Rikuo's friend, including Rikuo. They all settled down on the roof top to eat, each teen pulling out their lunches and started to eat.

"So…where do you go to school?" Natsumi asked, leaning forward to stare at Watanuki with her dark, cat-like eyes. She'd been staring at the older girl since she'd gotten up on the roof, mystified with the seer's dichromatic eyes.

"Private Cross Academy." Watanuki replied, taking another bite of her lunch.

"Oh, you mean you used to right?" The blonde Saori replied, taking a bite of her lunch as well. Watanuki was confused now.

"Oh, yeah." Kana joined in the conversation, taking a seat next to Rikuo when she came up onto the roof. "That school burned down two years ago, after that girl fell out of the second story window and died, right?" Watanuki looked at Doumeki, the story the girl was telling sounding very similar to her own incident with the window.

"Yeah, it was all over the news!" Shima interjected, the blond boy's lighting up with excitement.

"I heard that the accident that killed that girl was yokai related and my clan sent a skilled exorcist to bless the grounds," Yura added, the small exorcist joining in as well. "Unfortunately, half the school building was burned to the ground before he got there and he couldn't find any spirits there at the time."

"But I heard that every time they try to rebuild or redevelop the grounds terrible accidents happen to the construction crews that halt the work! It must be a yokai!" Kiyotsugu shouted, leaping up into a dramatic lunge while still holding his lunch.

"But if a skilled exorcist couldn't find any spirits when he looked over the school how can it be yokai related?" Rikuo asked.

"Because they yokai must've fled to safety and then came back when Yura's clansman left!"

"But he blessed the grounds with a powerful spell that only truly powerful yokai can break. Are you saying that this yokai could really be that strong?" Yura asked.

"There's only one way to find out! We need to go to Private Cross Academy and find out for ourselves!" Kiyotsugu declared.

"Forget it." Saori cut off her friend, turning fully back to her lunch.

"I'm out." Natsumi agreed.

"I'm not going. Every time we go into an abandoned school building bad things end up happening." Kana added.

"But that's because yokai really do exist!"

"I'm not sure about this one either, Kiyotsugu." Shima replied, his smiled gone. "Several of the construction workers got seriously hurt. I don't want that to happen to us."

"Where's your sense of adventure!?" The student body president asked, turning to look at each of his friends in shock. "Nura! You agree with me right?" He asked, turning to the brunette boy.

"I have to stay with my cousin's today, so I can't do anything right now." Rikuo gave an apologetic smile.

"Looks like you got shot down." Watanuki finished up, pointing her chopsticks at the flabbergasted boy. Kiyotsugu had a mini breakdown right there on the roof but no one would take his side on this one. That however, didn't stop Watanuki's curiosity from growing. The eerily similar story to her own experiences had peaked her interest, and she was going to find out just who had died.

She dragged Doumeki and Rikuo to the library after school had ended, the trio waving goodbye to Tsurara and Aotabo as they went home to do kitchen and cleaning duties. From the school, Watanuki made a beeline to the library and sat down in the nearest computer once she'd gotten inside. Rikuo and Doumeki floated around her for a minute and then took seats on either side of the seer as she logged onto the internet and looked up Private Cross Academy. The search pulled up many articles on the construction accidents that had happened since the school had been burned down, and it took several minutes of searching to find an article about the girl who'd died. Watanuki wasn't happy about what she found. She frowned as she started reading the article out loud softly.

"On June 12th, 2008 Kimihiro Watanuki fell out of a second story window on the Private Cross Academy High School's campus. A fellow student, Wari Kunogi, said that the girl lost her balance while talking with him on the second floor. She tipped into the window, bumping the pane with her shoulder and the glass came loose. Both the female student and the window pane fell to the ground two levels down. Watanuki was rushed to the hospital but died en route from blood loss caused by the fall and by deep lacerations caused by falling on the shattered glass pane, and by head trauma."

Watanuki looked up from the computer and stared at Doumeki's face, which had gone pale by that point and Rikuo's face didn't look any better.

"Holy shit." The girl breathed, realizing that in this world…she'd died when she tumbled out of that window. "I died."

"Yeah." Doumeki replied, not really knowing what to say. Watanuki looked through several of the accident articles dealing with the school's fire just a few days after this world's Watanuki died and articles dealing with the redevelopment of the property. She found a couple with testimonies of workers that said they saw a girl walking in what was left of the school building, but they never saw her close up.

"So…the articles about people getting injured on the school's construction site are all caused by Watanuki's ghost?" Rikuo asked, just as confused as everyone else.

"They aren't caused by me." Watanuki protested. "From what Yuko tells me, people can live many lives across the dimensions. Every world out there might have one of me and one of you on it. Or not, though it seems that this world has one of me…and she died two years ago." Watanuki stopped talking again, trying to wrap her mind around this fact. "I'm dead in this world. I died. That fall killed me." Doumeki reached his hand out and took his girlfriend's hand tightly.

"You're alive Watanuki. You didn't die." He said softly.

"Right." Watanuki nodded, shaking her head to throw out her depressing thoughts of death. Rikuo was still studying the articles, scrolling down page by page, the computer screen's light blanking out his glasses.

"Well, now that I know about these accidents at the school, I need to do something about it." The boy stated after a few minutes. "The Nura clan cannot have rouge spirits causing serious damage to human affairs."

"So what are you going to do?" Doumeki asked.

"I need to go to the school and either recruit this spirit to my clan or I'm going to have to make her stop needlessly hurting people one way or another."

"I'm going with you." Watanuki said, closing all the browsing windows on the internet and logging out of the computer.

"Watanuki…" Doumeki warned, trying to keep the seer out of trouble.

"I need to see this for myself. Maybe this world's Watanuki will listen to me since I'm really her." The raven was determined to go and nothing was going to stop her, Doumeki could tell. He sighed and nodded and then the three of them walked out of the library as the sun was setting.

It took a little while to get to Private Cross Academy from where they started from, but past a certain point, Watanuki and Doumeki knew the way by heart, their feet taking them right to the school while Rikuo followed closely behind them. When they passed into view of the schools gates, Watanuki was shocked by how wrecked her school was. The back half of the building was missing, what was left from the fire was falling apart and several construction struts had been left on the property.

"It's a dump." Doumeki stated bluntly.

"I can see that!" Watanuki snapped back.

"Do you guys really go to this school?" Rikuo asked, still staring at the destruction.

"Yes, but in our world it's still nice. Though, I really did fall out of the window. That pane had to be replaced." Watanuki walked up to the gates and tried to open them. "Locked!" She called back to the boys.

"Looks like we're going to have to climb over them." Domeki said, a similar instance they'd been through bringing a small smile to his face. Watanuki blushed when she noticed his expression.

"You're going to help me over because you're taller and you're not going to look at my underwear this time!" She yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the archer.

"I can't promise anything." Doumeki replied, fully intent on peeping.

"You asshole! Why I put up with you I'll never know!"

"You love me."

"I hate you right now!" Before she could got on a rant again, Doumeki was already kneeling at Watanuki's feet and hoisting the girl up. She yelped and glared down at the exorcist and then stepped on his face for good measure because she _knew_ he was looking up her skirt. The girl jumped to the ground safely and Doumeki hoist Rikuo up before climbing over himself.

The school looked worse the closer they got, the walls breaking down, debris and shattered glass everywhere. Watanuki looked up at the window she'd fallen out and thought she spotted someone up there. She stared harder, narrowing her eyes. Whoever it was, they moved like a shadow, slinking in the dark. Until the rising moon shed its light on the building. Watanuki gasped. The figure looked like her, only she seemed to be made of Yuko's smoke or gray cloth, insubstantial and other worldly.

"Do you see her?" Watanuki asked Doumeki.

"No. Do you?" He asked Rikuo.

"Yes. Do you?" He asked Watanuki."

"Of course I do! I'm the one who asked the question in the first place!" Watanuki hissed, not wanting to startle herself. _That was an odd thought._ "What is she?" The seer asked, as she watched herself walk past the windows on the second floor, wandering the halls.

"She's an enenra…a spirit made of smoke. She's insubstantial because she is missing her other half." Yuko explained, doing that thing where she pops up exactly where she needs to be right when she needs to be there. Watanuki didn't even know how she and Mokona got over the gate without them knowing.

"Her other half?" Watanuki asked, looking at this world's version of herself, the dead spirit that resided in this abandoned school building.

"This Watanuki had no Doumeki. He never existed to her." Yuko said, sadness seeping into her voice. She looked at her own rain-soaked Watanuki and hoped that this never happened to her. "Either the Doumeki in this world never existed, he never met this Watanuki, or he died from disease or accident. Nevertheless, without someone like Doumeki, this Watanuki was never protected like you are and plagued by spirits and bad luck; she came upon that accident that killed her. And then the school burned when the spirit Watanuki took her revenge, I think. She set the school on fire when she became a smoke spirit."

"That's horrible." Watanuki watched herself wander the scorched halls of the abandoned school building, passing by the windows she herself had fallen out of. "She must be lonely."

"She can always join the Nura clan." Night Rikuo walked up behind Watanuki, his lower voice startling the seer. She hadn't even seen him transform. Rikuo's yokai form was wearing traditional Japanese clothing now, his school uniform disappearing. His eyes were narrower, the irises red and his hair was two-toned black and white now, extending back behind him like Nurarihyon's head, only to the side and not the back.

"You'd let her join your clan?" Watanuki asked, awe and hope leaking through her voice. She'd never seen someone like Night Rikuo, and it was kind of stunning. Even the Tengu or Jorogumo couldn't impress her like Rikuo. He was stunning, merciful and compassionate. She'd see these traits in his human self too, but they seemed to be amplified now. "Or she can move on – by force or by her own free will. Dead spirits have that option." And then Rikuo's voice hardened, showing Watanuki that he could be merciless as well. "But, if she continues to be a disturbance to this area, I will have to kill her."

"Rikuo…" Watanuki started, not knowing what to say. All she knew is that she didn't want the spirit her to be killed. If she wanted to move on, then so be it…but to have herself be killed by the sword was a horrible thought, even if it wasn't _her._

"Come with me." Night Rikuo took Watanuki's hand and pulled her towards the school. Doumeki (who had been silent this whole time) started walking behind them. Rikuo stopped and turned to look back at the exorcist. "Not you. You'll scare the spirit away with that aura of yours."

"But-" The archer started to protest.

"She'll be fine with me. I promise I'll protect her if the worst comes." Rikuo replied.

"Doumeki, let me do this." Watanuki looked her boyfriend in the eyes, hoping he saw determination and conviction instead of the uneasiness she was also feeling. Doumeki looked into Watanuki's mismatched eyes for a moment and then nodded, stepping back to stand next to Yuko and Mokona. The pair who was staying behind watched the other pair walk into the building and disappear into the darkness.

Watanuki stayed close to Rikuo, holding onto his arm as they transverse the deteriorating floor of the high school building, walking around breaks and jumping over holes that were too big to step across, all the while, the nurarihyon holding onto the girl and helping her hop over fallen tables and sections of ceiling that had crashed to the floor. Moonlight filtered in from the broken windows, illuminating their path while also casting dark shadows across the hallways and class rooms. They both walked in silence, the presence of such a power yokai and the sword being carried on his shoulder making the girl feel just a little safer. The only problem was that the little spirits and yokai that had taken up residence with the enenra kept following them, scrambling around Watanuki's legs as her blood called out to them. She tried to ignore them the best she could because they seemed to be behaving while Rikuo was with her, and just kept walking. The pair found a set of stairs at the end of the hallway and climbed up to the second floor, hopping over steps that were missing or falling apart. Rikuo had to toss Watanuki to the top of the stairs once because the last five steps were missing and then he gracefully followed by jumping them as well, his haori floating behind him gracefully as he landed and then fluttering down to his knees. Rikuo smiled at Watanuki, his red eyes smiling as she stared at him. The seer just blushed and huffed at the same time, pivoting on her heel and walking into the hallways. Just as they turned the corner into the second floor hallway, Watanuki spotted the enenra spirit turning around the corner at the end of the same hallway, disappearing from sight.

"Wait!" She called, reaching out and running down the hallway.

"Watanuki! Be careful, you idiot!" Rikuo yelled after the girl, running to catch up to her long legs. Watanuki had made it halfway down the hall, tripping and hopping around debris from the scorched insides of the building until the ground collapsed under her. Her foot had gone through the floor, breaking away the planks with a crack and falling through the hole. Watanuki's previous fall in Inuyasha's world and the fall from the second story of her school building flashed through her brain and she cursed her ability to always get in these situations. She sank through the floor, the broken planks of wood falling with her. They crashed to the floor below while Watanuki hung suspended in the air, her hand being gripped tightly by Rikuo. Watanuki looked up and saw the yokai bracing himself against floor as he hauled her back up onto the second floor and crawled to the edges of the hallway as the rest of that section gave away and crashed onto the ground floor. They both sat on a stable part of the hallways and breathed a sigh of relief, sitting back on their butts for just a moment.

"Thanks." Watanuki breathed as she started breathing again from her scare.

"You need to be more careful." Rikuo admonished, giving her a hard look. "If you get hurt your boyfriend's going to exorcise me and I don't want to die just yet."

"Fair enough." Watanuki said, standing up and brushing off her borrowed uniform. It had several rips and holes in it by this point so she was pretty sure Tsurara was going to kill her later. "Let's go. We're not done yet." Watanuki reached out a hand to her companion and he took it. She hauled him to his feet and they both started carefully making their way down the hall again. When they got to the point where the enenra Watanuki disappeared, they found another set of stairs going up. These ones were in a much better condition than the last set so Watanuki had no trouble walking up them. This set also went straight to the roof, bypassing the third floor of classrooms. Watanuki reached the door outside first and opened in cautiously, her experiences with roofs not much better than second floors and peeked out to make sure no giant snakes or evil girl spirits besides the enenra were up here. There weren't any she could see so the girl quietly walked out onto the roof. She looked around as Rikuo followed close behind her, scanning the roof for the spirit.

"She's over there." Rikuo found her first, pointing towards the far corner of the building where the spirit was looking out over the city. Watanuki and Rikuo approached quietly so not to disturb or startle the enenra and Watanuki got a good look at the spirit.

She looked just like Watanuki, only Watanuki didn't hover six inches off the ground and wasn't made of smoke. The spirit was wearing the normal summer uniform of Private Cross Academy, the same one Watanuki had been wearing yesterday. The spirit's form kept shifting and billowing, the gray tint to her body resembling clouds of smoke blowing in a soft breeze. The spirit noticed the pair after a few minutes of her gray eyes scanning the skyscrapers of the city. She turned and looked at Watanuki and Rikuo, her gaze lingering over the living version of herself. It didn't seem to surprise the spirit much that she had a look alike, her face showing only the smallest amount of shock.

"It seems this world has already replaced me. Have you come to kill me?" The spirit asked, her voice devoid of emotion, her eyes blank.

"Only if you don't stop terrorizing this area." Rikuo answered.

"We're here to help you." Watanuki amended, elbowing the yokai in the stomach. It disturbed her how blunt supernatural beings could be. They both just talked about death and killing like it was no big deal!

"You cannot help me now. I'm a lost cause." The enenra replied, running her fingers through her hair.

"We can!" Watanuki protested, taking another step forward. The spirit took a step back. "We can help you move on, or you can join the Nura clan! You've heard of them right?"

"Yes, I have." The spirit looked at Rikuo carefully. "Is this the Third Heir?"

"Yes, I am." Rikuo said. "And if you're will to leave this school in peace so the humans can redevelop it, then I would be happy to have you join my Night Parade of One Hundred Demons."

"I don't know if I'm interested in joining your Parade." The enenra replied with Watanuki's face. The spirit sat down in the air like she was sitting on a chair, and folded her arms. "You see, I've been a loner all my life and I don't take orders very well."

"You wouldn't be joining an army, you'd be joining a family. That's what our clan is: a big family. We look out for each other. You'd have comrades to protect you now, and you could protect them. It's and exchange of power and protection." Rikuo explained. The spirit didn't reply, she just narrowed her eyes, obviously not liking the way the proposal was offered. Watanuki knew that a business-like approach wasn't going to work on the spirit because it hadn't worked on her very well when Yuko offered her a job. The seer took a deep breath and took a couple steps forward. The spirit didn't move this time.

"I know how much you hate to be alone." Watanuki began, stopping just a few feet in front of herself. "Like you said, you've been alone your whole life and it has hurt you. There was no one who believed that you could see spirits and demons because they couldn't see them. That hurt you when they called you a liar and pushed you away. You got used to it…being alone became second nature even though you wanted someone to be with you, to love you." Watanuki paused. She'd caught the enenra's attention, the spirit looking into her eyes with her own eerily familiar eyes. "I know because I've been through it too. I've been alone for a long time until I met my friends, and they accepted me for what I am and what I can do. They don't care that I can see spirits, they like me for me. You need people like that in your life. The Nura clan can give you that." Watanuki gave herself a reassuring smile. "I've been around them, and it's just like Rikuo said: they are a family. They don't leave each other alone and they help each other. They can help you."

Watanuki finished her speech and fell silent, the night breeze blowing in between the group on the roof. The spirit thought for a moment, her face taking on the look that Watanuki wore when she was faced with a really, really hard math problem. Rikuo and Watanuki waited for the spirit's answer as she thought.

"I don't know if I want to stay here any longer." The enenra started, breaking the silence she'd created. "This world holds to many painful memories for me. I think I want to go, but I don't know how."

"Then you can stay with us until you figure it out." Rikuo offered, his voice softening. The spirit was still wary, eyeing Rikuo like he was going to bite her.

"They're not that bad, I promise." Watanuki reassured. "A little loud, and they love to make you slave away in the kitchen, but that's because you're a good cook. I know that much!" Watanuki smiled and held out her hand. "Come on. Even if it's just for a little while, you're going to have friends. You're going to be fine."

"Are you sure?" The enenra asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. You can trust yourself, right?" Watanuki laughed and even if the spirit didn't laugh or smile, Watanuki could tell she was amused.

"I believe you, even if you're a little strange." With that, the spirit Watanuki did smile…just a little.

"If I'm weird, then what are you?" Watanuki laughed again. The spirit took her incarnation's hand and stood up. She walked over to Rikuo and bowed to him.

"I shall stay with your clan until such time that I move on." She stated formally. "Is this agreeable?"

"Yes." The two yokai nodded at each other and then something amazing happened. The enenra dissipated, her smoke surrounding Rikuo and Watanuki, swirling and swirling around them faster and faster. Watanuki shrieked as her feet lifted off the ground and Rikuo just smiled at her, amused. The spirit lifted them off the roof top and sailed down to the ground below. Watanuki got dropped on her butt and Night Rikuo leapt safely to the ground as the spirit Watanuki reformed herself. She looked at Yuko and Mokona, studying the witch.

"I'm sorry I did not find you in this world." Yuko said solemnly.

"I don't think I'd want to be found by you, witch." The spirit replied.

"That' what I think." Watanuki grumbled, rubbing her butt as she stood up.

"That's not very nice, Watanuki." Yuko admonished.

"I know." Both Watanuki's replied. The two girl smiled at each other. Doumeki had no clue what was going on because he couldn't really see or hear the spirit. She just looked like a shadow in the air, like the wisps of Yuko's pipe smoke.

"Let's go home." Rikuo said. Everyone nodded. The enenra looked back at her school once, turning around to bow and then became a cloud of smoke again, scooping everyone up and flying them through the night sky to the Nura household. She deposited at the front gate to the mansion, becoming a girl again and walking inside with her new friends and family. Watanuki sighed, brushing her skirt down and wondering for the millionth time if she was ever going to get home. Helping other people was fine an all, but she was getting tired, last night's activities weighing down on her even now.

"You're staying for dinner, right?" Rikuo asked, transforming back into his human form.

"It's time go. We've stayed here long enough and the portal should be here soon." Yuko said, walking into the courtyard of the Nura clan's headquarters. The rest of the household was milling about the mansion, but stopped to was and pester the group of travelers as they strolled in. Rikuo called greetings to all his friends, waving at Tsurara as the yuki-onna stared at her uniform in dismay. Watanuki had done quite a number on it when she remembered that her own uniform was still in the house.

"My uniform! I left it back at Rikuo's house!" Watanuki wailed, smacking her hand to her forehead. She was just about to run inside when Yuko grabbed her arm.

"Have no fear, I have all our stuff right here." Yuko held up the girl's backpack and unzipped it to show the girl her uniform. "Plus and excellent bottle of sake from our dear friend Wakana!" Yuko blushed in anticipation of her libation.

"Oh, great. More alcohol." Watanuki sighed. She grabbed her uniform and ran inside to change, apologizing over and over again to Tsurara for ruining one of her spares. The seer ran outside once she'd been forgiven to meet up with Yuko, Doumeki and Mokona. They looked like they were ready to leave and Watanuki was right there with them in the courtyard. The whole Nura household was out watching the small group, shouting for Watanuki to cook. The girl snapped back with oodles of venom that she was _never_ cooking for a demon mansion _ever_ again because they just abused her greatness! And then it happened, the portal between dimensions opened up again. Right in the pond.

"Into the pond!~" Yuko cheered, pointing towards the crack in the universe.

"No! I'm not going back in there!" Watanuki protested.

"Too bad!~" Yuko grabbed the girl's arms and leapt into the water and down through the dimensional portal. Doumeki followed close behind, gracefully leaping in behind the females.

"Have a safe trip!" Rikuo called, waving. The enenra Watanuki waved to her sister soul as they were swallowed up by the portal, looking just a little happier than before. Shouts of safety and good travels followed his from all the yokai in the Nura household and as the hole closed up, Watanuki couldn't help but smile even though she was pissed at Yuko. She'd made a lot of strange friends, and she'd never thought she'd be friends with even more yokai than her friends back home (because yokai for the most part were very hard to get along with). The Nura clan members were real yokai like the spirits back home but they liked to play tricks more than they liked to eat people and it was nice sometimes…nice not to be eaten by spirits and demons.

"Watanuki, you're smiling." Yuko teased, "Could it be you actually like traveling worlds?"

"No! I'm just glad we're going home now!"

"If you say so!~" Yuko laughed and finally let go of the girl's arm. They drifted along the path to the next world (home, hopefully, in Watanuki's case), the silence comforting until Mokona started demanding that Watanuki take out the sake that Wakana gave them for the trip. Then the seer hit the fur ball and told it to shut up which just opened a new can of Watanuki/Mokona cat fights that ended with Doumeki stealing the sake out of the seer's bag, opening it, taking a drink and then passing the bottle around to Yuko and Mokona while Watanuki tried to snatch it back before someone got drunk and got their lazy ass lost between dimensions.

A/N: An there you go! Be sure to tell me how I did! :3 Until Next time!


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